HELL  AT  MIDNIGHT 

IN  SPRINGFIELD 

or  A  Burning  History  of  the  Sin  and  Shame 
Of  the  Capital  City  of  Illinois 


.   .    ^      -c 


This  is  the  only  book  ever  published  exposing  Benedictine,  the  infamous  dope  made  by 
the  Monks  in  their  monasteries  and  sold  in  dives  and  brothels  throughout  the  slums  of  the 
world.      It  is  a  terrible  story.     Don't  miss  it. 

BY 

WM.     LLOYD    CLARX 
MILAN,    ILLINOIS 
f  924 

FIFTH    EDITION 

PRICE  25  CENTS 


OR1CAL  SURVEY 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION 

In  publishing  this  book  the  author  makes  no  pretense  whatever  of  liter- 
ary merit.  The  contents  have  been  compiled  in  haste,  often  during  the  mid- 
night hour,  after  delivering  a  lecture,  or  on  the  train  while  speeding  from 
place  to  place.  No  apology  is  made  for  producing  a  book  of  this  kind.  The 
author  strikes  bravely  at  what  he  believes  to  be  a  menace  to  good  govern- 
ment, and  which  threatens  the  life  of  the  nation.  The  book  and  its  author 
will  be  roundly  cursed  by  the  doers  of  evil  deeds,  and  warmly  welcomed  by 
all  who  have  the  courage  to  think  and  act  for  the  right.  Advance  orders 
prove  that  this  book  will  have  a  tremendous  sale,  and  it  is  sent  out  on  its 
mission  with  a  fervent  prayer  that  it  will  do  much  good  in  shaping  public 
sentiment  along  right  lines,  not  only  in  Illinois,  but  throughout  the  nation. 

WM.  LLOYD  CLARK. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION 

We  published  the  first  edition  of  this  book  three  years  ago  because  we 
felt  that  the  criminal  and  lawless  conditions,  both  in  the  city  of  Springfield 
and  throughout  the  state,  justified  plain  speaking. 

We  now  go  to  press  with  the  second  edition,  for  the  same  reasons,  and 
we  serve  notice  on  the  rotten  bunch  of  time  serving  politicians,  that  so  long 
as  the  saloon,  the  brothel,  the  gambling  hell,  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Hier- 
archy continue  their  fearful  work  of  degrading  and  debauching  humanity 
this,  book  will  be  circulated,  and  its  author  will  be  tireless  in  his  campaign 
for  better  conditions. 

For  advertising  the  first  edition  of  this  book  through  the  mails  I  was 
indicted,  tried  and  fined  in  a  Federal  Court,  Peoria,  111.,  October  20,  1911. 
Judge  Humphreys,  a  citizen  of  Springfield,  assessed  a  fine  of  $400.00  and 
costs  on  the  author  of  this  book ;  and  this  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  in  this 
country  there  is  published  and  sent  through  the  mails  tons  of  salacious  fic- 
tion, appealing  to  every  dormant  pruriency  of  boy  or  girl;  but  you  must  not 
publish  THE  TRUTH  concerning  actual,  horrible,  ruinous  conditions,  as 
they  now  exist,  although  your  motive  is  to  save  pure  girls  from  falling  into 
an  earthly  hell.  We  are  going  to  push  the  circulation  of  this  book  so  hated 
by  brothel  madams,  the  whiskey  devil,  and  the  Christless,  time  serving  politi- 
cians, to  the  absolute  limit  of  our  ability. 

When  the  federal  authorities  persecuted  the  author  and  publisher  ef 
this  book  by  assessing  against  him  a  heavy  fine,  they  won  and  without  ques- 
tion received  the  hearty  approval  of  every  keeper  of  a  scarlet  house,  every 
pimp,  and  thug,  and  gambler,  and  saloonkeeper,  and  the  whole  history  of 
this  shameful  judicial  farce  is  told  in  the  last  chapter  of  this  edition. 


3 

CSV  h 


I  tore  the  mask  from  some  of  their  boon  political  companions  and  exposed 
the  criminal  workings  of  political  Romanism  in  this  state  and  they  must 
have  revenge.  They  are  welcome  to  it,  for  when  these  time  servers  who  take 
no  part  in  the  great  nation-wide  movement  for  better  things,  are  dead,  rotten 
and  forgotten,  the  people  will  remember  with  gratitude  and  kindness  the  men 
who  fought  their  battles,  and  whose  sacrifices  ushered  in  a  better  day. 

Yours  for  truth,  justice  and  liberty, 

WM.  LLOYD  CLARK. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIFTH  EDITION 

We  are  printing  another  edition  of  this  book  for  the  reason  that  orders 
continue  to  come  in  for  it  though  it  was  first  printed  ten  years  ago  and  con- 
sists mainly  of  exposures  of  conditions  as  they  existed  at  that  time  in  the 
capitol  city  of  Illinois.  The  book  will  not  stop  because  its  message  is  needed 
today  as  much  as  when  first  published.  There  is  only  a  slight  change  at  the 
Capitol.  The  saloon  has  been  transformed  into  a  hooch  joint  and  the  bar 
tender  into  a  bootlegger.  The  red  light  district  has  moved  into  the 
rooming  houses,  hotels  and  assignation  resorts.  The  Roman  Hierarchy  is  as 
powerful  and  defiant  today  as  ever.  Only  a  few  months  ago  the  city  police 
went  down  the  street  and  smashed  news  stands  that  were  selling  papers  that 
told  the  truth  about  present  conditions.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Knights 
of  Columbus  and  the  Papal  Hierarchy  are  fighting  with  every  weapon  at 
their  command  for  the  restoration  of  the  saloon  the  truths  contained  in  this 
book  should  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  every  liberty  loving  man  and  woman 
in  the  nation.  This  new  edition  is  sent  out  with  an  earnest  hope  that  it  will 
aid  in  the  fight  for  the  redemption  of  the  nation  and  the  restoration  of  right 
principles. 

Faithfully  yours, 

WM.  LLOYD  CLARK. 


INTRODUCTION 

Every  patriotic  citizen  is  interested  in  the  welfare  of  his  country — the 
country  where  he  must  live,  and  where  his  children  must  live  after  him. 
The  reformer  naturally  turns  his  attention  to  the  great  city.  It  is  the  nerve 
center  of  American  society  and  American  politics. 

Since  the  partial  redemption  of  Kansas  City,  Kansas,  and  other  populous 
centers,  public  attention  has  been  directed  to  the  increasing  importance  of 
cities  to  their  peculiar  perils,  to  their  domination  by  the  worst  classes 
through  the  neglect  of  the  better  classes,  to  the  possibility  of  their  political 
salvation — which  many  have  doubted  until  recently — and  to  the  continual 
necessity  for  municipal  reform. 

We  do  not  write  of  the  conditions  existing  in  Springfield  with  a  vicious 
motive,  as  some  of  the  daily  papers  would  have  people  believe;  but  in  the 
interest  of  truth,  to  arouse  the  conscience  of  her  better  manhood  to  a  real- 
ization of  impending  peril.  It  is  that  viciousness  may  be  dethroned,  and  law 
and  order  established  in  the  Capitol  city  of  our  rich  and  splendid  common- 
wealth, and  with  an  earnest  prayer  that  the  leprous  spots  may  be  purged 
from  this  otherwise  fair  city  that  this  book  is  written. 

In  a  work  of  this  kind  we  have  a  right  to  expect  the  hearty  co-operation 
of  every  patriotic  citizen,  and  brave  words  of  cheer  from  every  Christian 
man,  woman  and  child. 

The  corruption  of  our  large  cities  imperils  the  purity  of  American  youth, 
and  in  the  interest  of  millions  of  pure  girls  and  boys  we  demand  that  the 
cities  of  this  country  purge  themselves  of  their  moral  filth.  The  soul  and 
character  of  one  honest  lad  will,  in  the  eternal  justice,  outweigh  all  the 
blood  money  ever  received  by  the  government  from  the  bloated  hands  of  the 
whiskey  plutocrats. 

The  great  evils  have  fortified  themselves  in  the  centers  of  population 
and  under  the  reign  of  purchasable  and  corrupt  Mayors,  Aldermen  and 
Police,  threaten  the  overthrow  of  law  and  order. 

The  greatest  duty  which  confronts  the  citizen  today  is  to  do  all  that  lies 
within  his  power  to  redeem  our  cities  from  the  reign  of  demagogues.  To 
save  our  nation  and  give  to  posterity  a  country  where  an  honest  lad  will  be 
free  from  temptation  and  the  vices  which  ruin  honest  manhood. 


ON  THE  BORDERS  OF  HELL 

The  children  used  to  point  at  Dante  and  say,  "There's  a  man  who  has 
been  in  Hell."  The  same  could  have  been  said  of  me  at  midnight,  on  July  1st, 
1909,  for  I  had  scouted  six  long  weary  hours  through  the  "bad  lands"  of  this 
great  prairie  city,  the  proud  and  wicked  capitol  of  the  richest  commonwealth 
in  the  republic.  And  you  can  be  sure  I  saw  things — for  they  can  be  seen 
by  everybody  except  the  man  in  a  policeman's  uniform,  or  the  Christian 
voter  on  election  day.  If  all  the  death  that  the  saloons  of  the  nation  dealt 
out  on  this  one  day  could  be  brought  together  and  scattered  through  the 
streets  and  byways  of  one  great  city  all  at  one  time;  the  wretches  fighting 
back  the  imaginary  demons  of  delirium  tremens  in  unpadded  cells,  until  the 
shattered  bones  of  broken  hands  clashed  against  prison  bars,  and  mashed  and 
battered  skulls  sank  bleeding  against  prison  walls;  the  air  filled  with  the 
shrieks  of  rum-made  maniacs;  babies  with  their  brains  knocked  out  by 
drunken  fathers,  or  overlain  and  smothered  in  the  night  by  drunken  mothers; 
scattered  through  dirty  hallways  and  tenement  shacks — 20,000  of  them;  the 
streets  clogged  with  murdered  children,  murdered  men  and  murdered  women 
and  heartbroken  wives,  mothers  and  sisters;  if  all  this  misery,  pain,  heart- 
ache and  death  that  has  been  vomited  out  upon  the  highways  or  into  the 
criminal  courts  of  the  nation  for  just  one  day  by  the  licensed  and  legalized 
gin  mills  could  be  brought  together  in  one  city  at  one  time  it  would  rival  the 
scenes  in  the  streets  of  Paris  on  the  morning  of  St.  Bartholomew's  massacre. 

John  G.  Woolley  had  the  same  thought  in  the  following  word  picture, 
portraying  the  concentrated  horrors  and  infamies  of  the  liquor  traffic  when 
he  said:  "Now  I  understand  that  cry,  what  a  cry!  A  city  as  large  as  New 
York,  Brooklyn,  Boston,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati,  Philadelphia,  Balti- 
more. Six  millions  of  people  and  not  a  happy  home;  thousands  of  miles  of 
streets  and  not  a  cheery  face;  multitudes  of  madmen,  epileptics,  idiots,  pau- 
pers, criminals,  and  no  escape.  A  walled  city  first — an  outer  wall  of 
mountains;  then  a  wall  of  distilleries,  which  in  a  street  of  solid  masonry 
would  reach  from  Boston  to  Omaha;  then  one  of  breweries  nearly  as  long; 
then  mad  houses  nearly  as  long;  then  brothels  nearly  as  long;  then  gambling 
houses  nearly  as  long;  then  a  double  row  of  dram  shops;  and  ravening 
through  all  the  labyrinth,  the  minotaur  of  alcoholic  conversation  of  ribald 
and  filthy  society,  rotten  altogether  vile.  Seven  days  of  personal  liberty — 
drunkenness,  a  week;  no  sweet  night's  rest.  No  Sunday,  no  church,  no  God. 
Two  hundred  men  die  drunk  there  every  day.  And  all  the  foul  infections 
and  contagious  fester  and  spread  and  kill  and  drive  men  and  women  mad. 
It  is  like  the  leper  colonies  of  the  Pacific  Islands,  multiplied  by  a  million 
horrors.  It  is  like  a  colossal  madhouse  with  the  added  horror  of  locking  in 
thousands  of  sane  but  broken-hearted  women  who  refuse  to  be  rescued  be- 
cause they  love  the  brutish,  red-eyed,  pimply  madmen  who  never  touch  them 
but  to  wound,  and  never  speak  to  them  but  in  the  dialect  of  hell." 

Northeast  from  the  corner  of  Sixth  and  Washington  Streets  for  many 
blocks  the  city  of  Springfield  is  a  mass  of  dive  saloons,  pawn  shops,  question- 
able hotels,  fourth  rate  lodging  houses  and  assignation  resorts,  stenchful 
restaurants  and  brothels  from  the  lowest  ramshackle  hovels  to  the  most 
richly  and  elaborately  equipped  which  can  be  found  anywhere  in  the  State. 


Let  me  say  here — once  and  for  all — it  is  not  the  workingman  whe  gives 
to  the  slum  that  patronage  necessary  to  keep  it  alive.  It  is  true,  working- 
men  are  there  by  the  thousands,  dissipating  away  their  hard  earned  wages, 
while  their  families  suffer  in  poverty  and  their  children  are  deprived  of  an 
education.  But  the  slum  must  have  its  rich  devotees  who  can  buy  champagne 
at  four  dollars  a  throw  and  pay  fancy  prices  for  fancy  women.  And  Spring- 
field is  not  wanting  in  rich  and  shameless  debauches.  At  all  hours  from  ten 
o'clock  in  the  evening  to  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  cabs,  carriages  and 
automobiles  can  be  seen  stopping  in  front  of  Madam  Browning's  richly  and 
luxuriously  furnished  place,  or*  the  palatial  brothel  presided  over  by  the  old 
Jezebel  known  as  Helen  Paine. 

I  think  it  was  about  10:30  I  saw  an  auto  loaded  with  fashionably  dressed 
men  and  women  stop  in  front  of  Dave  O'Connor's  "House  of  David"  on 
North  Sixth  Street.  They  ordered  the  drinks  delivered,  and  out  in  the  public 
street  laughed  and  shamelessly  quaffed  the  beverages  of  Hell.  And  down 
through  the  red  light  district  the  "Red  Devil"  carried  its  load  of  rich  and 
dissipated  merrymakers,  stopping  and  ordering  drinks  from  the  lowest 
shambles.  Some  day,  before  a  just  God,  these  stewards  of  wealth  must  ren- 
der an  account.     But  do  they  think  of  this? 

The  saloon  dominates  this  entire  district.  It  is  true  the  house  of  shame  is 
there,  but  if  the  saloon  is  closed  tonight,  the  brothel  will  move  out  tomorrow. 
In  nearly  every  one  of  these  saloons  there  is  a  side  stairway  so  arranged 
that  one  can  pass  from  the  bar  room  into  a  hallway  and  upstairs  without 
passing  out  upon  the  street.  Looking  at  these  upstair  apartments  from  the 
hallway  or  the  street  there  is  almost  no  evidence  of  life,  but  watch  them 
closely  for  a  while  and  you  will  see  people  pass  up.  Sometimes  young  men, 
often  older  men.  Sometimes  a  girl  in  her  teens,  in  company  with  a  man  old 
enough  to  be  her  father.  In  almost  every  case  these  places  are  used  for 
gambling  or  prostitution,  or  they  are  assignation  houses. 

About  ten  o'clock  the  street  woman  makes  her  appearance.  They  are  most- 
ly girls  who  have  served  an  apprenticeship  in  the  house  of  shame  and  have 
become  sufficiently  brazen  to  solicit  men  in  the  public  street.  Many  of  them 
are  girls  whose  beauty  has  faded  until  they  are  no  longer  desirable  for 
brothel  service  and  the  brothel  madam,  after  her  bank  book  is  smeared  with 
their  flesh  and  blood,  kicks  them  into  the  street  to  tread  the  cinder  path  of  sin 
onward  toward  death  and  hell.  And  around  the  dusty  stairway  of  some  old 
shack  you  will  peer  into  the  spectral  and  ghastly  face  of  some  old  hag,  once 
a  sweet  pure  girl,  the  light  and  hope  of  a  mother's  life,  but  the  liquor  traffic 
had  a  place  for  her,  and  this  great  rich  republic  needed  revenue,  and  the  city 
needed  blood  money  to  reduce  the  tax  of  Dives,  and  the  policeman  on  his 
beat,  a  dirty  nondescript,  needed  a  rake-off,  and  there  she  stands — "a  rag 
and  a  bone  and  a  hank  of  hair" — with  one  foot  in  the  grave,  the  hideous 
mockery  of  a  grin  upon  her  shriveled  and  wasted  face,  beckoning  you  to 
follow  her  into  Hell.  She  is  but  one  of  a  thousand;  the  life  is  very  short. 
In  a  little  while  she  drains  the  cup  to  its  bitter  dregs,  and  in  an  unmarked 
span  of  earth  she  lies  dead  and  forgotten. 

Paul  James  Duff  thus  describes  her:  "In  many  of  the  'Tenderloin'  con- 
cert saloons  and  beer  gardens,  one  sees  not  once,  but  often,  the  form  of  the 
Venus  Milo,  and  the  face  of  Cleopatra. 


Rich  silks  froufrou  over  the  dusty  floors,  and  gems  of  high  price  flash  in 
the  electric  glare. 

Song  bubbles  from  painted  and  swollen  lips.  Laughter,  false,  hollow, 
strained  and  a  little  harsh,  is  everywhere. 

To  one  who  sees  no  deeper  than  the  surface,  it  is  a  pleasing  and  attrac- 
tive scene. 

At  midnight  the  crowd  is  thinned.  At  one  in  the  morning  only  the  un- 
successful remain  to  walk  their  beat  so  weary  up  and  down,  to  and  for,  with 
an  eye  open  for  the  policeman. 

Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  from  saloon  to  saloon,  occasionally  getting  some 
young  blood  to  'set  'em  up.'  These  are  older  than  their  lucky  sisters,  whom 
they  jostle,  but  could  not  outbid  earlier  in  the  night.  Their  faces  are  paler, 
wan  and  lined.  Their  eyelids  are  red,  their  features  are  set  in  the  stoniness 
of  despair. 

Poor  lost  angels!  They  have  had  their  day.  They  have  quaffed  the 
purple  wine  in  the  wild  hours  of  the  night.  They  have  arrived  at  the  dregs. 
Deeper  and  deeper  into  the  slough  of  poverty  and  the  slum  of  vice  they 
plunge,  night  after  night,  and  month  after  month. 

No  one  to  save — none  to  rescue  them.  Every  vain-glorious  Dive  ridicules 
their  plight  of  misfortune  begotten  in  a  state  of  sin.  These  women  feel  that 
they  are  social  outcasts,  that  their  sins  are  as  scarlet.  They  believe  they 
are  past  reform. 

The  consequence?  Death  from  consumption,  pneumonia,  general  disease, 
syphilitic  rheumatism,  and  all  the  hydra-headed  forms  of  that  most  fright- 
ful of  all  diseases — syphilis,  waits  for  them  at  the  end  of  the  long  journey. 

Still  the  hopeless  leer  into  the  whiskey  redened  faces  of  men,  who  reel 
by  them  with  curses,  or  stop  and  stagger  and  sway,  and  greet  them  with 
coarse,  nameless  jibes. 

Still  the  pained,  fixed  smile,  the  gnawing  of  physical  hunger,  the  mad- 
dening desire  for  drink! 

The  achings  of  fatigue  and  sin  struck  home  to  the  heart,  the  tearing  fangs 
of  despair. 

We  are  tired  of  the  stroll — the  sights  of  it  and  not  the  distance,  have 
fatigued  us. 

Let  us  take  one  of  the  faded,  hopeless,  unsuccessful  ones  and  put  a  little 
brief  joy  into  her  life. 

The  bar-room  glares  with  colored  lights  and  mirrors  and  chandeliers  of 
crystal.  Back  of  it  the  'ladies'  entrance'  to  a  cozy  room,  stands  suspiciously 
open — but  very  inviting. 

All  is  revelry  within,  and  the  thought  of  a  future  is  not  tolerated.  No 
place  for  croakers  or  moralists — in  the  very  throes  of  pleasure. 

'Come  Birdie  and  get  a  drink!'  See!  her  hand  trembles  as  she  unfastens 
the  cheap  plush  coat  made  in  imitation  of  sealskin.  Her  face  pales  under  the 
rouge  as  she  takes  a  seat  at  one  of  the  wine  tables.  'Quick,  barkeeper,  a 
long  tall  glass  of  absinthe  frappe!'     That's  her  tipple. 

The  red  comes  slowly  back  to  the  worn  face,  and  the  eyes  brighten.  The 
lashes  have  been  darkened  with  graphite  to  make  her  look  seductive.  Poor 
devil!  She  spent  a  long  time  before  her  cracked  looking  glass  this  evening, 
doing  her  hair  and  face,  that  she  might  coax  back  some  of  her  lost  beauty 


8 

— that  she  might  seem  fair  and  beautiful  in  the  eyes  of  some  stranger  of 
the  streets. 

Poor,  poor  devil!  'Another  glass  of  absinthe  barkeeper,  and  make  it 
strong.'     Give  her  the  few  dollars  that  would  have  been  my  change. 

See  the  thin  fingers  close  on  the  money  eagerly!  That  means  room  rent 
for  a  week  or  more — a  shelter  from  the  icy,  snarling  winds  of  winter,  and 
a  bed  for  throbbing  limbs,  even  though  she  goes  hungry.  She  is  in  the  hands 
of  helping  friends — not  wolves.     She  shall  talk. 

Listen!  You  shall  hear  in  her  words  the  story  of  one  of  ten  thousand 
tragedies  that  happen  about  us.  Deep  as  a  pitless  hell,  and  black  as  night, 
and  sad  as  the  voice  of  the  waves  that  mourn  about  the  dead  beauty  of  the 
cyclodes. 

Good  night!  Good  night!  God  pity  you,  weak,  foolish,  fluttering,  striv- 
ing, beating,  despairing  victim  of  man's  rapacity. 

But  this  wicked  traffic  goes  on,  while  the  idle  bacchanal  laughs  and  "des- 
pair in  vain  sits  brooding  o'er  the  putrid  eggs  of  hope." 

On  Washington  Street  from  the  corner  of  the  Court  House  square  east 
to  the  Wabash  depot  one  passes  twenty-five  saloons,  most  of  them  so  vile 
and  stenchful  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  describe  them.  And  this  is  a 
main  thoroughfare  over  which  hundreds,  or  possibly  thousands  of  men, 
women  and  children  pass  daily.  Negro  dive  saloons,  Bohemian  saloons  where 
the  English  language  is  never  spoken.  Blazing  lighthouses  of  Hell  and  re- 
cruiting stations  for  the  penitentiary.  You  enter  one  of  these  places  and 
low  browed  brutish  red  eyed  animal-men  will  stare  at  you.  The  air  is  foul 
and  stifling.  Faded,  vulgar  pictures  look  down  at  you  from  dirty,  dust- 
covered  walls.  The  mirrors  behind  the  bar  are  so  covered  with  fly  specks 
and  other  accumulations  of  filth  that  you  can  scarcely  see  your  reflection. 
Low-browed,  pig-eyed,  pug-nosed,  pot-bellied  products  of  the  saloon  with 
shirts  unbottoned  in  front  and  breeches  bagging  at  the  knees  are  lined  up 
at  the  bar,  drinking  goblets  of  sheeny  booze.  The  glasses  are  greasy  and 
dirty  from  the  filth  that  sticks  to  them  from  the  hands  of  the  bartender. 

Over  nearly  every  door  hangs  the  unpronounceable  name  of  a  Roman 
Catholic  foreigner,  and  in  and  around  these  places  loaf  the  porch-climber 
and  yeggman,  who  would  take  your  life  for  a  dollar.  Sandwiched  in  be- 
tween everywhere  are  sheeny  pawnshops.  Hogan's  place  is  one  of  the  worst 
booze  joints  in  the  row;  a  large,  dirty  bar  room  in  front,  back  of  which  is 
a  larger  room  fitted  up  for  gambling,  and  where  not  long  ago  I  counted 
forty  men  playing  cards  at  one  time.  This  is  one  of  the  worst  criminal 
schools  in  the  state,  but  under  Democratic  and  Republican  government  alike 
it  receives  Uncle  Sam's  permit  at  the  City  Hall  to  further  degrade  and  de- 
bauch its  victims. 

You  do  not  find  the  swell  politicians,  the  tony  young  sport  or  the  pros- 
perous looking  business  man  in  these  dives.  They  pull  the  political  wire 
from  the  high  toned  joints  up  on  North  Fifth  street,  while  the  ward  heeler 
and  the  party  boss  bumps  elbows  with  the  bums  down  in  the  dives,  deliver 
their  votes  at  so  much  a  head  for  the  candidate  most  favorable  to  the  Gin 
Mill  business,  and  by  fraud,  intimidation  and  ballot  box  stuffing  the  saloon 
buys  another  lease  of  life,  and  for  another  term  can  continue  the  nefarious 
business  of  producing  criminals,  wrecking  homes,  breaking  women's  hearts, 
fattening  graveyards  and  peopling  Hell  with  lost  and  damned  souls. 


Just  off  Washington,  on  North  Eighth  Street  is  Mackey's  place,  where 
you  get  a  meal,  a  bed  or  a  bath  for  ten  cents.  -  The  whole  place  looks  as  dirty 
as  the  price  is  cheap,  and  in  any  well  regulated  city  this  ramshackle  would 
come  under  the  ban  of  the  board  of  health.  Next  door,  appropriately  near 
by,  is  located  an  undertaking  establishment,  and  this  brings  us  to  the  mam- 
moth brick  and  brown  stone  front  building  where  Madam  Helen  Paine  con- 
ducts the  most  fashionable  and  the  most  extensively  equipped  brothel  in  the 
state  capital.  Suppose  we  enter.  Madam  Helen  Paine  opens  the  door  with 
a  welcome  smile  and  asks  you  if  you  desire  to  see  any  girl  in  particular.  If 
not,  she  calls  in  her  bevy,  of  which  she  possesses  a  rare  collection ;  from  girls 
that  look  to  be  in  their  teens  up  to  wise  old  sirens  who  know  all  the  ropes 
that  will  help  a  fool  to  part  with  his  money.  You  are  ushe/ed  down  a  long 
hallway  into  a  room  that  is  worthy  of  special  notice.  Some  of  you  prosper- 
ous people  of  Springfield  could  put  all  your  fine  furniture  into  this  room  and 
still  it  would  hold  more.  Its  floors  are  of  hard  wood  highly  polished  and 
waxed.  Around  the  walls  are  costly  couches  and  divans.  Pictures,  ques- 
tionable too,  look  down  at  you  from  the  richly  papered  walls.  The  Madam 
has  ushered  you  to  a  seat,  it  is  early  and  but  few  girls  have  company.  She 
touches  a  button  in  the  wall  and  instantly  her  inmates  commence  to  arrive; 
they  come  down  the  stairway,  up  from  the  basement,  from  everywhere. 
They  seat  themselves  about  the  room.  Some  one  will  start  a  conversation, 
usually  they  want  to  know  if  you  are  a  stranger  in  the  city.  You  are  soon 
informed  that  you  must  choose  your  company,  time  is  money — and  girls  come 
high  in  this  place.  If  you  want  to  see  how  beautifully  the  rooms  are  fur- 
nished upstairs  it  will  cost  you  five  or  ten,  or  if  you  are  not  careful  it  will 
cost  you  your  entire  pocketbook.  Suppose  that  while  you  are  chatting  in  this 
great  reception  room,  the  door  bell  rings  and  another  caller  appears,  rest  as- 
sured you  will  never  see  him.  He  will  be  directed  to  another  room  just 
as  large  and  just  as  fine  in  its  furnishings,  and  another  bevy  of  girls  ushered 
in  for  his  entertainment.  Men  are  never  allowed  to  face  each  other  inside 
this  place  unless  they  came  to  the  house  together.  It  is  not  considered  safe, 
as  brother  might  meet  brother,  father  might  meet  son;  for  it  is  said  that  not 
long  ago  there  came  near  being  a  tragedy  when  a  young  man  came  face  to 
face  with  the  husband  of  his  own  sister  in  a  Springfield  brothel.  But  why 
are  some  of  these  rooms  so  large  and  commodious?  Let  us  drop  down  there 
at  midnight  when  the  automobiles  have  been  stopping  in  front  and  enter  and 
we  will  see  these  large  rooms  turned  into  dance  halls,  and  we  will  see  young 
men  from  the  first  homes  of  Springfield  folded  in  the  voluptuous  embraces  of 
fallen  women. 

You,  Christian  fathers  and  mothers  of  Springfield,  and  of  Illinois,  what  do 
you  think  of  this?  These  places  are  so  terrible  that  it  beggars  the  English 
language  to  describe  them.  They  exist  to  damn  your  boy  and  seduce  and 
sell  your  girl  into  a  life  of  shame.  They  exist  in  violation  of  the  ordinances 
of  Springfield  and  the  statutes  of  Illinois.  They  exist  with  a  full  knowledge 
of  the  Governor,  the  Mayor,  the  Sheriff,  the  Chief  of  Police,  the  Prosecuting 
Attorney,  and  the  whole  miserable  mess  of  time  servers  who  hold  their  honor 
below  par  and  sell  the  manhood  of  the  state  and  city  to  the  saloon  and  brothel 
in  exchange  for  a  miserable  mess  of  political  pottage. 

Is  your  boy  secure?  I  will  show  you  how  secure  he  is.  At  ten  minutes 
before  twelve  o'clock  on  the  1st  of  July,   1909,  two  boys,  not  over  twenty 


10 

years  of  age,  emerged  from  this  great  brothel  and  went  direct  past  the  Court 
House  square,  out  under  the  shadow  of  the  executive  mansion  where  Gover- 
nor Deneen,  by  grace  of  the  saloon  and  Christian  vote,  united  at  the  ballot 
box,  holds  the  reins  of  power — on  out  into  the  resident  district;  one  of  them 
went  into  a  beautiful  home,  the  other  passing  on  a  few  blocks,  turned  into  his 
father's  house.  Both  homes  give  evidence  of  wealth  and  culture  and  re- 
finement, but  while  the  parents  slept,  their  boys  found  the  company  of  her 
whose  feet  take  hold  upon  Hell,  and  while  sowing  their  wild  oats  they  are 
sowing  germs  of  diseases  that  are  visited  upon  their  children  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generation. 

A  sequel  to  the  future  of  either  of  these  Springfield  boys  may  be  found 
in  the  following  narrative  that  was  told  to  me  over  thirty  years  ago  in  one  of 
the  large  cities  of  this  state  in  the  parlor  of  a  rich  and  cultured  home,  the 
home  of  one  of  the  richest  men  of  the  great  commonwealth  of  Illinois.  It  was 
during  my  college  days.  I  was  a  lad  then  about  the  age  of  these  Spring- 
field boys  and  I  hated  the  saloon  as  intensely  as  I  do  now.  It  was  a  common 
thing  for  the  boys  to  make  temperance  speeches  in  our  college  debating 
clubs,  and  on  nearly  every  Sunday  afternoon  when  weather  conditions  were 

right,  I  delivered  a  lecture  in  the  public  square.  I  also  wrote  and  published 
my  first  temperance  books,  and  they  were  read  extensively  throughout  the 
city  and  country.  This  activity  on  my  part  attracted  the  attention  of  a  very 
aged  and  retired  business  man  of  the  city.  In  fact  I  had  often  noticed  this 
dignified  old  man  and  his  faithful  wife  in  my  audiences  when  announced  to 
speak  against  the  saloon.  At  the  close  of  an  open  air  temperance  address 
one  Sunday  afternoon  in  the  public  square,  this  old  man  approached  me  and 
urged  me  to  accompany  him  to  his  home,  as  he  desired  a  conversation,  and 
would  impart  to  me  information  that  might  prove  of  great  value  in  my 
chosen  work.  After  reaching  his  home  he  secured  from  me  a  solemn  promise 
that  in  using  this  narrative  I  would  never  divulge  the  family  name.  This 
promise  I  have  faithfully  kept.  I  will  now  give  you  this  fragment  of  human 
history  as  I  have  given  it  to  many  thousands  from  the  lecture  platform : 

Their  union  was  blessed  with  only  one  child.  He  was  the  idol  of  a  happy 
home.  The  mother  was  a  church  woman  and  very  devoted  to  church  work. 
The  father  was  a  very  thrifty  business  man,  so  devoted  to  business  matters 
that  he  allowed  his  son  to  grow  to  young  manhood  without  giving  him  a 
father's  attention  and  the  counsel  and  advice  which  every  boy  should  receive 
from  his  father.     Even   Sundays,   God's   day  of   rest,  was   occupied  by  the 

father  in  reviewing  his  books  and  looking  over  the  business  affairs  of  a  bank 
of  which  he  was  an  officer.  He  accumulated  wealth  until  he  became  a  mil- 
lionaire, but  sitting  there  in  the  ashes  of  his  old  age  he  declared  that  money 
getting  had  been  the  curse  of  his  life  and  he  would  gladly  give  up  every 
dollar,  if  in  so  doing  he  could  buy  the  privilege  of  looking  again  in  the  face 
of  his  boy.  While  every  hour  of  his  life  was  devoted  to  accumulating  money, 
his  boy  was  going  to  the  devil  through  the  agencies  of  dissipation.  At  last 
their  eyes  were  opened  to  the  danger  that  surrounded  their  son — they  had 
been  careless.  He  was  their  son,  with  good  loyal  Puritan  blood  in  his  veins, 
therefore  he  would  do  nothing  wrong.  They  allowed  him  to  seek  his  own 
companions  and  form  his  own  environment,  and  he  had  drifted  from  his 
better  moorings  and  gone  the  way  of  many  thousands,  through  the  cigarette, 
the  billiard  hall,  the  gambling  room,  the  saloon  and  the  brothel;  he  had  fallen 


11 

dead  in  love  with  sin.  When  he  should  have  been  the  mainstay  uf  his 
father  in  business  matters  he  was  dissipated  and  worthless.  In  an  un- 
expected moment  when  the  old  father  was  engaged  in  a  business  con- 
versation in  the  private  rooms  of  the  bank  the  son  entered;  his  eyes  were 
wild  and  the  fumes  of  rum  upon  his  breath.  He  instantly  informed 
his  father  that  he  was  sick  and  must  have  money  to  pay  for  treatment 
The  father  was  angered  and  spoke  harshly  to  his  son  for  interrupting 
an  important  business  discussion.  This  angered  the  son  and  he  spoke  to  his 
father  in  this  manner:  "I  know  I  am  bad  and  unworthy,  but  I  am  not  alone 
to  blame  for  it.  I  have  never  had  a  father's  counsel  or  advice.  You  never 
had  an  hour  to  give  me,  not  even  on  the  Sabbath  day.  You  never  warned 
me  against  evil  companions  or  the  consequences  of  social  sin,  and  after  four 
years  of  dissipation  I  have  come  back  to  you,  rotten  from  the  top  of  my  head 
to  the  bottom  of  my  feet  with  the  vile  disease  of  the  harlot.  You  can't  dis- 
miss me  now  for  I  am  suffering  the  tortures  of  the  damned.  The  hair  is  falling 
from  my  head,  great  sores  cover  my  body,  and  unless  you  furnish  me  money 
to  go  to  the  Hot  Springs  of  Arkansas  and  be  cured  I  will  blow  my  brains 
out  before  sundown."  The  father  was  alarmed,  and  for  cause.  He  dismissed 
all  business  engagements  and  hurried  with  his  boy  to  the  family  physician 
who  advised  that  the  boy  be  allowed  to  go  to  the  Springs  that  he  might  have 
the  benefit  of  the  curative  waters  there.  He  received  the  treatment  of  this 
famous  resort  for  a  year  and  came  home  believing  that  he  was  a  sound  man. 
He  refused  to  meet  his  old  companions  and  settled  down  into  a  steady  busi- 
ness life  and  became  an  officer  in  his  father's  bank.  "How  happy  we  were," 
declared  the  old  man  at  this  part  of  his  story.  "I  felt  my  boy  was  safe,  that 
in  business  matters  he  would  follow  in  my  footsteps  and  take  up  the  responsi- 
bilities as  coming  age  compelled  me  to  lay  them  down.  He  won  the  love  of 
a  beautiful,  accomplished  girl,  and  made  her  his  wife.  Three  years  had  gone 
by  since  his  return  from  the  Springs.  From  every  evidence  ho  was  a  cured 
and  sound  man.  We  cannot  forget  how  sweet  and  fresh  his  girl  bride  looked 
that  June  morning,  with  the  roses  in  her  hands  and  on  her  hair,  when  she 
stood  at  the  altar  of  the  church  and  gave  to  our  boy  her  pure  young  life. 
And  how  strong  and  brave  and  manly  our  boy  looked.  Our  lives  were  all 
very  happy  that  day  for  all  seemed  well  and  the  future  secure." 

Until  this  time  the  gray  haired  old  mother  sat  in  an  easy  chair  and 
listened  while  her  husband  unfolded  the  terrible  narrative,  but  she  could 
stand  it  no  longer,  and  with  tears  streaming  from  her  eyes,  she  left  the  room. 
Oh!  the  mothers  whose  hearts  are  breaking  tonight  because  of  the  terrible 
places  of  sin.  The  young  huisband  built  a  beautiful  home  for  his  young 
wife.  There  was  not  a  cloud  to  mar  the  sunshine  of  their  happy  lives.  Time 
passed  by  and  all  hearts  became  anxious,  for  the  young  and  beautiful  wife 
must  pass  down  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  and  usher  in  a  new 
life. 

Stitch  by  stitch  she  had  prepared  its  little  garments  and  every  stitch 
was  a  stitch  of  love.  But  oh!  what  a  fearful  thing  awaited  them.  The  babe 
was  born  but  it  was  a  syphilitic  babe.  The  flesh  was  eaten  from  the  tips  of 
its  little  fingers.  One  ear  was  eaten  away,  and  the  nose  and  upper  lip  was 
partially  gone.  It  lived  a  few  hours  and  died;  its  little  body  was  covered 
with  the  terrible  ulcerous  sores  like  the  ones  on  its  father's  body  before  he 
went  to  the  Springs  for  treatment.     The  treatment  had  cured  him  only  on 


12 

the  surface.  Death  lurked  in  every  drop  of  blood  that  flowed  in  his  poor 
polluted  body.  "Can  you  save  my  wife?"  asked  the  young  husband,  for  he 
now  understood  it  all  and  was  suffering  terrible  mental  agony.  "One  chance 
in  a  thousand — her  condition  is  bad,"  was  the  doctor's  frank  reply. 

A  week  of  suffering,  terrible,  even  worse  than  the  agonies  of  hydrophobia ; 
the  windows  of  this  rich  home  here  drawn  tight,  but  at  midnight  the 
neighbors  a  block  away  were  aroused  from  their  slumbers  by  the  fearful 
shrieks  of  this  poor  girl  wife  dying  a  syphilitic  death.  They  put  the  bridal 
robes  back  on  her  poor  body,  the  roses  back  in  her  hands  and  on  her  hair, 
and  there  she  lay  sleeping,  the  sleep  eternal,  looking  as  sweet  and  fresh  as 
she  looked  just  one  year  before  at  the  sacred  shrine  where  she  pledged  her 
love  and  lovalty  to  the  man  who  had  murdered  her  by  the  dissipated  life  he 
had  lived  while  "sowing  his  wild  oats."  Early  in  the  morning  they  placed  her 
in  a  beautiful  casket,  my  boy  stood  by  her  side  and  could  not  be  taken  away. 
Such  agony  I  have  never  seen  before,  nor  since.  After  he  had  stood  by  the 
silent  form  of  his  beautiful  wife  for  many  hours,  and  after  others  had  failed 
to  lead  him  away  from  her,  I  approached  him  and  spoke  to  him.  He  was 
looking  down  into  her  face,  his  eyes  were  wild,  I  walked  up  to  him  and  spoke 
and  laid  my  hand  on  his  left  shoulder  and  was  going  to  place  my  arm  about 
him,  for  his  face  was  white  as  ashes  and  I  believed  he  was  going  to  fall. 
His  eyes  had  hardly  closed  in  sleep  since  the  night  of  his  baby's  birth.  His 
right  hand  hung  below  the  casket  and  I  did  not  see  that  it  firmly  gripped 
the  handle  of  a  Colts  revolver,  but  when  I  interrupted  him  he  threw  the 
muzzle  of  the  gun  against  his  head  and  pulled  the  trigger.  The  blood  gushed 
from  a  great  hole  in  his  temple  and  he  fell  bleeding  and  dying  into  my  arms. 

A  year  almost  to  a  day,  from  the  time  we  saw  them  stand  at  the  mar- 
riage altar,  we  laid  them  to  rest;  side  by  side  they  sleep  out  yonder.  We 
keep  their  graves  green,  and  every  year  on  the  bridal  day  we  lay  flowers  on 
their  graves.  It  is  all  we  can  do.  My  poor  wife  has  never  smiled  since  her 
boy  died.  All  the  sunshine  has  gone  out  of  our  lives.  God,  I  hope,  has  for- 
given me  for  the  carelessness  in  the  bringing  up  of  my  boy.  But  oh!  young 
man,  go  on  in  this  work.  Tell  this  history  wherever  you  can.  Plead  with 
fathers  to  guard  their  boys  from  these  temptations,  and  plead  with  the  boys 
to  shun  the  life  that  leads  to  sure  destruction." 

I  could  weave  in  many  details  if  time  would  permit,  but  may  the  God  of 
Heaven,  who  sees  all  and  knows  all,  have  mercy  on  the  officers  of  the  law 
who  have  forgotten  Him;  who  have  forgotten  their  oaths  of  office;  who  have 
blood  upon  their  hands,  because  they  have  the  power,  the  law  and  the 
authority,  and  refuse  to  use  it,  refuse  to  close  such  places  as  described  in 
this  chapter,  places  that  spread  diseases  worse  than  leprosy  into  the  homes 
and  lives  of  God's  innocent  children,  causing  them  to  die.  It  is  murder,  and 
the  most  cowardly  form  of  murder.  It  is  letting  these  lawless  places  run, 
knowing  that  their  existence  means  sure  death  and  untold  agony  to  innocent 
wives  and  children. 

You,  minions  of  the  law,  Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Mayor,  Mr.  Sheriff,  Mr. 
Prosecuting  Attorney,  when  you  refuse  to  close  these  places,  is  not  the  blood 
of  their  murdered  victims  upon  your  hands?  Answer  this  question  fairly, 
squarely  and  honestly.  You  dare  not  do  it.  You  are  guilty  and  you  know 
it.  They  destroy  human  life  and  you  know  it.  Where  does  Madam  Paine 
get  her  authority  to  run  the  largest  brothel  in  the  state  outside  of  Chicago? 


13 

She  is  running  an  illegal  institution.  One  word  from  any  official  in  authority 
and  she  must  close.  What  are  the  relations  between  this  brothel  Madam, 
this  female  outlaw  and  the  officials  of  Springfield  that  this  word  is  not 
spoken? 

THE  WAIL  OF  A  LOST  SOUL 

It  has  been  no  pleasant  duty  to  probe  the  iniquities  of  Springfield  vices 
which  flourish  under  a  wide  open  policy.  I  have  personally  visited  almost 
every  den  in  the  city.  I  have  heard  the  obscene  and  vile  language  of  the 
beasts  of  the  bar-room  until  sick  at  heart,  I  have  wondered  how  man,  made 
in  the  image  of  God,  could  become  so  vile  and  pass  down  so  far  below  the 
brute  creation.  I  have  studied  Springfield  life  in  that  part  of  the  city  where 
the  lights  burn  brightest  at  midnight.  In  the  interest  of  truth,  that  I  might 
tell  honest  fathers  and  pure  mothers  of  the  danger  which  imperils  the  future 
of  their  girls  and  boys,  I  became  for  a  short  time  the  companion  of  the 
brutish,  pimply  madmen,  the  common  patrons  of  the  house  of  shame.  They 
never  speak  to  their  victims  but  in  the  dialect  of  Hell  and  never  touch  them 
but  to  wound.  In  houses  that  gave  evidence  of  wealth  I  drew  from  parched 
and  bloated  lips  the  stories  of  these  girls,  stories  that  would  kindle  pity  in 
Hell. 

Talking  with  a  girl  that  had  not  long  ago  been  very  beautiful,  I  spoke 
to  her  of  the  purity  of  her  girlhood  and  the  love  of  a  faithful  mother.  "For 
God's  sake,  stop,"  she  said.  ''I  don't  want  any  religion.  Christ  is  all  right, 
but  men  are  the  devil.  I  was  a  farmer's  daughter,  a  good  pure  girl  and  went 
to  Sunday  School.  But  it  is  no  use  talking  to  me  now.  There  is  no  hope  for 
such  as  I.  I  have  given  up  hope.  I  am  going  down  hill  as  fast  as  possible. 
I  use  cigarettes,  opium,  and  drink  all  the  liquor  I  can  get."  Here  she  broke 
off  with  the  information  that  if  I  was  a  preacher  I  might  as  well  trouble  her 
no  more.  "You  would  be  too  good  to  get  me  a  bottle?"  "I  might  if  you 
would  give  me  a  history  of  your  life.  But  doesn't  beer  get  stale?  Wouldn't 
you  like  something  a  little  better?  Got  any  benedictine?"  Her  eyes  bright- 
ened and  I  knew  I  was  on  the  trail  of  valuable  information.  In  a  few 
minutes  she  stood  before  me  holding  in  her  hand  a  stained  glass  bottle.  On 
its  outer  wrapper  was  clearly  revealed  a  picture  of  the  Savior  of  man,  the 
shepherd's  crook  and  the  cross  of  Christ.  Benedictine  wine,  made  by  the 
Benedictine  Monks,  with  all  the  insignia  of  the  Church  of  Rome  on  every 
bottle.  The  church  of  the  Pope  is  making  millions  as  the  manufacturer  of 
the  common  beverage  of  the  house  of  shame.  The  Mother  of  Harlots  has 
added  the  crowning  infamy  to  an  already  infamous  record.  And  yet  there 
are  temperance  people,  who  in  their  ignorance  of  the  deceptions  of  Romanism 
will  give  out  mild  apologies  for  this  church  drunken  with  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs  of  Jesus. 

All  about  me  as  I  write  are  scattered  the  bottles  and  decanters  containing 
this  criminal  product  of  modern  Romanism.  Each  bottle  carries  proof  as  to 
its  origin  and  character.  "It  was  a  touching  story  and  as  tragic  as  life  that 
she  told  me  at  midnight  in  that  tawdry  parlor.  The  jingling  piano  was 
going  in  the  next  room  where  the  girls  were  dancing,  and  the  air  was  full 
of  the  reek  of  beer  and  tobacco.  She  told  her  story  without  any  pretense  or 
appeal  for  sympathy,  and  I  give  it  here  as  a  page,  soiled  and  grimy,  but 


14 

nevertheless  a  veritable  page  torn  from  the  book  of  life." 

"I  was  born  in  a  village  in  Wisconsin,  the  oldest  of  a  family  of  seven 
children.  There  was  a  mortgage  on  our  little  home  and  father  was  trying 
to  lift  it.  I  decided  to  help  my  parents,  and  corresponding  with  an  employ- 
ment agency  in  Chicago,  secured  a  clerkship  in  a  department  store  in  that 
city  at  a  salary  of  $4  per  week.  Board  was  secured  in  a  cheap  lodging  house 
at  $3  per  week.  This -left  one  dollar  per  week  for  laundry  and  all  personal 
expenses.  After  three  months  a  raise  of  50  cents  per  week  was  secured.  By 
renting  a  room  in  partnership  with  another  girl  and  living  on  bread  and 
water  and  depriving  myself  of  every  luxury  and  most  of  the  comforts  of  life, 
it  was  possible  to  send  home  to  mother  one  dollar  each  week. 

A  young  man  came  to  my  counter  almost  every  day,  making  slight  pur- 
chases* and  using  the  time  while  waiting  for  change  to  cultivate  my  acquain- 
tance. After  a  long  time  he  asked  my  company  for  the  evening  and  we  went 
to  the  theater,  afterward  he  gave  me  an  oyster  supper.  Though  he  turned 
out  to  be  a  perfect  devil,  still  I  remember  how  I  longed  for  his  visits,  for 
they  came  like  rays  of  sunshine  into  my  poor  life.  Finally  he  took  me  out 
two  or  three  times  a  week.  From  what  he  told  me  I  thought  him  to  be  the 
son  of  a  rich  Chicago  merchant.  He  was  very  kind  and  lavish  with  his 
money.  He  offered  me  relief  as  he  knew  my  life  was  a  struggle.  His  money 
was  refused  as  I  had  no  right  to  take  it,  then  he  told  me  that  he  loved  me; 
all  seemed  fair,  for  we  had  been  in  each  other's  company  almost  constantly 
for  over  six  months  and  I  gave  him  in  return  the  rich  strong  love  of  my 
pure  young  girlhood.  Then  there  came  one  of  the  darkest  hours  of  my  life. 
Had  I  known  more  of  the  world  I  would  have  broken  off  the  engagement 
and  been  saved.  He  asked  that  I  surrender  on  the  altar  of  man's  lust  the 
jewel  of  a  woman's  soul,  her  purity  and  self  respect.  I  cried  until  it  seemed 
my  heart  would  break.  Then  he  petted  me  and  asked  me  to  forgive  him, 
and  we  would  soon  be  married  and  be  happy.  I  objected  to  the  marriage 
being  performed  without  my  parents'  knowledge,  but  he  reasoned  with  me 
that  he  had  planned  a  great  surprise  for  my  parents.  That  as  soon  as  we 
were  married  I  could  use  his  money  and  send  enough  home  to  lift  the 
mortgage  on  my  father's  farm.  That  night  he  took  me  to  some  beautiful 
rooms  and  introduced  me  to  the  man  they  called  the  preacher.  The  other 
two  gentlemen  were  to  be  witnesses.  The  elegant  lady  to  whom  he  intro- 
duced me,  he  said  was  his  sister.  We  were  married.  Three  weeks  later  he 
left  me.  The  whole  thing  was  a  mock  marriage.  The  Madam  deliberately 
told  me  I  was  deserted  and  was  the  inmate  of  a  house  of  shame  and  was 
not  too  good  to  stay  and  do  what  the  other  girls  were  doing. 

Day  by  day  I  walked  the  stony  streets  looking  in  the  faces  of  men,  hoping 
to  find  the  devil,  for  I  loved  him  still.  One  night  my  strength  gave  away 
and  I  sank  down  in  the  street.  Two  girls — common  street  walkers — found 
me  and  their  hearts  were  stirred  with  pity.  They  took  me  to  their  rooms, 
and  there  I  stayed  until  baby  was  born.  How  glad  I  have  always  been  that 
it  only  lived  a  few  days;  they  took  the  little  thing  and  buried  it  in  the 
potter's  field.  (At  this  part  of  her  story  her  parched  lips  trembled  with 
emotion.)  When  able  to  travel  the  girls  gave  me  the  money  and  I  went  out 
to  find  work.  Day  after  day  I  searched  for  something  to  do  until  my  last 
cent  was  gone  and  I  stood  hungry  and  alone  on  the  street.  I  could  not  go 
back  to  my  mother,  I  was  not  fit. 


15 

That  night  I  walked  the  streets  cold,  hungry,  and  with  a  breaking*  heart. 
A  policeman  approached  me  and  asked  me  who  I  was.  When  he  saw  my 
distress  he  took  me  to  a  house,  ordered  me  cared  for  and  on  the  following  day 
he  called  on  me,  and  for  food  and  clothes,  my  starving  body  consenting,  I 
became  a  mistress.  As  soon  as  I  could  get  a  little  money  I  left  him  and 
went  to  Milwaukee.  Here  I  got  work  as  a  dish  washer  in  a  restaurant. 
After  a  while,  my  personal  appearance  being  greatly  improved,  a  position 
was  secured  as  a  waiter  in  a  first-class  hotel.  Things  looked  brighter  now. 
A  letter  was  written  home,  the  first  one  for  over  two  years.  I  was  thoroughly 
determined  to  reform.  One  day  my  heart  sank  within  me.  There  came 
into  the  dining  room  a  man  who  used  to  frequent  the  house  where  I  staid 
while  the  mistress  of  the  Chicago  policeman.  I  determined  to  be  brave. 
When  the  traveling  man  settled  his  bill  he  said:  "Where  did  you  get  that 
girl?  She  in  a  prostitute  from  a  house  in  Chicago."  I  lost  my  position,  and 
homeless  and  friendless,  I  again  tramped  the  streets  of  the  city.  I  could 
not  go  to  mother  for  her  pure  eyes  would  have  detected  what  I  was  and  it 
would  have  killed  her.  At  this  part  of  her  history  the  tears  rolled  down 
her  powdered  face,  and  as  she  wiped  them  away  she  said :  'They  are  the  first 
ones  for  a  good  while,  for  when  I  think  of  my  baby  or  my  mother  I  rush  for 
liquor.'  Then  all  the  truth  relative  to  her  lost  condition  crowded  in  upon 
her  mind  and  she  cried :  "Oh !  God  what  have  they  done  with  my  life." 
Then  she  poured  great  drafts  of  the  liquor  down  her  throat.  "After  I  lost 
my  position  in  the  hotel  I  lost  hope,  I  went  straight  to  a  house  of  shame, 
after  a  year  in  Milwaukee,  I  went  back  to  Chicago,  then  I  came  to  Spring- 
field. The  majority  of  men  who  come  to  see  us  here  are  drunken  and  brutal. 
I  have  lost  hope,  am  drinking  harder  every  day  and  going  to  the  devil  as 
fast  as  I  can.  It  is  only  the  opinion  of  a  lost  and  fallen  woman,  but  a  man 
who  will  ruin  a  girl's  life  ought  to  be  hung  for  it,  for  it  is  worse  than  mur- 
der." 

I  thanked  her  kindly  for  her  narrative,  but  when  I  tried  to  intimate  that 
there  was  hope  for  even  such  as  she,  and  if  she  would  make  an  honest  effort 
I  would  send  her  to  friends — she  shut  me  off  quick  and  sharp.  She  poured 
another  glass  of  Benedictine  down  her  throat  and  touched  a  match  to  a 
dainty  cigarette  which  she  had  carefully  rolled  while  talking.  Passing  out 
I  looked  back  at  her,  and  through  wreaths  of  smoke  saw  the  outlines  of  a 
face,  beautiful  still,  even  in  its  dissipation. 

"ONE  OF  THE  IMAGES  YE  HAVE  MADE  OF  ME." 

HUMAN  AGONY  REPRESENTED  IN  DOLLARS  THAT  ARE 

BLISTERED  WITH  TEARS  AND  THAT  DRIP 

WITH  BLOOD 

What  is  the  attitude  of  modern  municipal  government  toward  that  vast 
accumulation  of  destroyed  womanhood  that  populates  the  red  light  districts? 
Like  the  inhuman  Spanish  monster,  Weyler,  the  modern  city  boss  establishes 
a  policy  of  reconcentration,  and  forces  these  lost  units  of  the  human  race 
into  specified  territories  known  as  "red  light  districts,"  there  to  tread  the 
cinder  path  of  sin  down  to  Death  and  Hell  without  a  ray  of  hope  in  all  the 
midnight  of  their  poor  blackened   and  blasted  lives.     And  worse  still,  they 


16 

brand  every  shattered  body  with  a  price.  Municipal  grafters  levy  a  black- 
mail upon  them  and  sets  the  price  for  which  they  may,  in  the  markets  of 
shame,  sell  both  soul  and  body  to  libertines  "who  never  touch  them  but  to 
wound  and  who  never  speak  to  them  but  in  the  dialect  of  Hell."  Their 
treasuries  are  polluted  with  the  shame-gold  of  the  brothel  and  the  blood 
money  of  the  saloon. 

Your  covenant  with  death  shall  be  disannulled  and  your  agreement  with 
Hell  shall  not  stand. — Isaiah. 

Woe  to  him  that  buildeth  a  town  with  blood  and  establish  a  city  by  in- 
iquity.— Habakkuk. 

Of  all  the  low,  infamous  grafts  in  practice,  the  one  that  extorts  money 
from  tha  fallen  woman  is  the  most  infamous  and  unholy.  A  clan  of  muni- 
cipal grafters  who  will  do  this  are  the  most  conscienceless  pack  of  scoundrels 
that  ever  cut  a  throat  or  scuttled  a  ship.  All  students  of  social  problems 
know  that  these  poor  women,  most  of  them  victims  of  too  much  faith  in  man, 
suffer  every  day  of  their  lives  all  the  tortures  and  miseries  of  the  damned, 
the  infamous  vultures  who  fatten  on  the  graft-money  of  the  brothel  eat 
human  flesh  and  sail  on  seas  of  human  blood.  Every  dollar  is  blistered  with 
tears    and  represents  untold  agony  crushed  from  human  hearts. 

There  never  was,  in  the  lowest  regions  of  the  most  orthodox-Hell,  a  pit 
half  hot  enough  to  sufficiently  punish  the  officials  of  a  city  who  are  so  utterly 
lost  to  every  instinct,  human  and  divine,  as  to  go  into  a  compact  like  that. 

In  Springfield  scores  of  these  shambles  of  shame  run  every  day  and  night 
of  the  year  in  absolute  violation  of  the  ordinances  of  the  city  and  the  laws 
of  the  state. 

Vast  property,  mammoth  buildings,  a  large  section  of  the  city,  scores  of 
human  lives  are  represented  in  Springfield's  red  light  district. 

This  whole  thing  runs  in  violation  of  both  state  and  federal  law. 
"  And  this  has  continued  until   Springfield   has  gained   the   reputation   of 
being  one  of  the  most  lawless  and  notorious  cities  of  its  size  in  the  United 
States. 

But  you  say,  the  brothel  is  a  necessary  evil  and  what  can  we  do?  No! 
In  God's  universe  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  "necessary  evil."  No  city, 
state,  or  federal  government  has  any  moral  or  legal  right  to  go  into  partner- 
ship with  that  which  blights  character  and  ruins  life.  Any  system  of  official 
license  is  virtually  an  authorization  of  vice  by  the  state.  "This  is  the  way, 
walk  ye  in  it"  would  be  written  up  over  the  broad  and  easy  way  which  leads 
to  the  house  of  debauchery. 

The  immediate  consequence  of  any  system  of  regulation  or  municipal 
authorization  of  houses  of  debauchery,  is  to  teach  every  citizen  that  vice  is 
necessary  and  lawful,  and  to  encourage  the  delusion  that  freedom  from 
disease  is  guaranteed  to  debauches  by  the  government,  as  many  of  the  cities 
force  the  inmates  to  submit  to  a  physical  examination  at  the  time  of  collect- 
ing the  blackmail  fees  or  fines  that  they  may  be  given  a  certificate  by  the 
Police  Doctor,  certifying  that  they  are  free  from  venereal  diseases.  This 
system  is  detested  by  all  inmates,  as  it  makes  them  the  bondslaves  of  the 
police  doctors.  This  is  an  outrageous  farce,  as  no  system  of  examination 
can  ever  succees  in  keeping  down  these  loathsome  diseases  when  applied  to 
only  one   sex.      Under   and  city   law,   but  with   a   perfect   knowledge   of    all 


17 

state  and  city  officials  and  patrolled  by  the  police  every  hour  both  day  and 

night. 

The  Mayor,  the  City  Attorney,  every  Alderman,  every  Policeman,  and  the 
officials  of  every  city  court,  the  Governor  of  the  state,  the  County  Prosecuting 
Attorney,  the  Sheriff  of  Sangamon  County  and  every  Deputy  Sheriff  possesses 
absolute  knowledge  as  to  what  is  going  on.  They  know  exactly  what  the 
law  is  and  they  know  to  what  a  fearful  and  wholesale  extent  the  law  is 
being  violated. 

The  Mayor  of  the  city  and  the  Governor  of  the  state  and  all  their  sub- 
ordinate officers  took  an  oath  to  uphold  the  majesty  of  the  Law.  but  the 
oath  of  office  died  on  their  faithless  lips,  and  the  law  they  swore  to  uphold 
has  been  trampled  beneath  the  feet  of  saloon  bosses  and  brothel  madams. 

Will  these  faithless  officials  please  explain  to  the  people,  the  tax  payers 
whose  servants  they  are,  under  what  kind  of  an  agreement,  understanding 
or  midnight  compact  these  saloons  and  brothels  are  allowed  to  violate,  under 
the  eyes  of  the  police  every  law  of  God  and  man? 

The  beer  dive  flaunts  its  defiance  of  law  in  the  face  of  Christian  civil- 
ization. 

The  brothel  flaunts  its  shame  in  the  face  of  decency. 

All  this  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  the  state  and  city. 

Under  this  system  the  officers  of  the  law  become  school  masters  to  lead 
men  to  the  brothel. 

Many  cabmen  are  the  active  agents  of  the  house  of  ill-repute.  Their 
carriages  are  seen  late  at  night  in  front  of  theaters,  oyster  houses,  wine 
rooms,  saloons,  dance  halls,  and  at  almost  any  time  in  the  late  hours  of  the 
night  rows  of  cabs  stand  in  front  of  Madam  Browning's  palatial  brothel. 
A  libertine  has  succeed  in  getting  an  innocent  girl  under  the  influence  of 
wine,  calls  a  cab  under  the  pretense  of  taking  her  home,  tips  the  driver,  and 
after  a  slow  drive  of  a  couple  of  hours  the  scoundrel  has  overcome  his  vic- 
tim, whose  sense  of  propriety  was  benumbed  by  wine,  and  he  has  accom- 
plished what  ought  to  send  a  pang  to  his  accursed  heart,  and  the  girl  goes  to 
an  assignation  house  and  a  life  of  shame,  and  the  scoundrel  goes  back  into 
society  and  is  soon  on  the  trail  of  another  victim. 

The  procuress  plies  her  trade  in  Springfield  as  in  all  other  similar  cities. 
They  haunt  the  dance  halls,  theaters  and  parks.  There  are  girls  in  Spring- 
field houses  of  ill-fame  who  have  been  taken  there  by  plausible  ladies  who 
know  of  such  nice  lodgings,  or  some  other  specious  reason.  They  did  not 
know  until  it  was  too  late.  These  girls  are  as  innocent  of  any  wish  to  go 
wrong  as  the  deer  is  innocent  of  any  wish  to  be  shot  or  snared. 

Another  method  of  railroading  girls  to  the  brothel  is  here  revealed : 
"I  lived  at  home,"  said  a  girl  in  a  house  of  ill-repute,  "and  had  a  mother  and 
sister  to  support  on  $5  a  week.  One  time,  my  mother  got  ill  and  I  could  not 
get  the  necessary  medicine  for  her.  Then  a  young  man  whom  I  knew,  and 
who  came  quite  frequently  to  my  counter  to  buy  goods,  offered  me  a  good 
deal  of  money  if  I  would  go  with  him  to  an  assignation  house.  I  wanted 
the  money  for  my  mother  and  so  I  went.  Having  gone  once,  I  went  again, 
until  I  gradually  drifted  into  a  house  of  prostitution." 

"Once  they  are  started  either  by  force,  fraud,  or  ill-luck,  there  is  no  way  of 
getting  back.  They  have  to  go  through  with  it  to  the  bitter  end.  They 
bury  the  memories  of  the  past  by  drinking  the  waters  of  that  temporary 


18 

leath  which  men  call  strong  drink,  and  quiet  their  conscience  by  the  thought 
that  after  all  they  are  no  worse  than  the  highly  respectable  men  who  visit 
them,  and  what  they  are  able  by  suffering  these  things,  to  help  relatives  who 
would  otherwise  often  be  in  great  straits." 

Our  great  cities  have  become  foreign  colonies  on  American  soil.  They 
are  the  hotbeds  of  vice.  The  cheap  Sunday  excursion,  the  beer  garden,  the 
saloon,  the  dime-novel  den  where  vile  literature  is  sold,  the  immoral  hotel, 
the  dance  hall,  the  gambling  den,  the  brothel,  the  Papal  parochial  school 
where  thousands  of  children  are  taught  loyalty  to  a  foreign  potentate,  are 
all  kindred  evils,  either  one  of  which  would  die  if  not  supported  by  the 
others. 

"It  is  the  duty  of  the  government  to  make  it  easy  for  the  people  to  do 
right  and  hard  for  them  to  do  wrong,"  said  Wm.  Gladstone,  of  England. 
Springfield's  city  government  reverses  this  policy  and  offers  the  people  abso- 
lute liberty  to  plunge  into  every  form  of  licentiousness  and  debauchery 
known  to  modern  life. 

The  fair  haired  boy  with  bright  blue  eyes  and  noble  brow  who  says 
farewell  to  mother  and  comes  across  the  hill  and  field  into  the  great  city  to 
win  fame  and  fortune,  will  find  on  almost  every  corner  and  at  every  turn, 
the  open  door  of  the  drink  shop  with  its  blear-eyed,  bull-necked,  pot-bellied 
agent  of  the  city  who  has  paid  the  price  asked  at  the  city  hall  for  the  piece 
of  paper  which  gives  him  the  right  to  debauch  that  boy  and  send  him  back 
to  his  mother's  arms  a  ruined  and  bloated  wreck.  And  upstairs,  and  in  the 
rear,  and  at  the  side  door,  he  will  find  her  whose  feet  take  hold  upon  Hell. 
Surely  we  have  discarded  the  theory  of  Gladstone,  and  the  philosophy  of 
Burke,  who  said    "What  is  morally  wrong  can  never  be  politically  right." 

We  have  traded  the  Puritan  Sabbath  of  our  fathers  for  the  German 
beer  garden.  We  have  traded  the  trinity  of  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost  for 
the  blessed  trinity  of  beer  cheese,  and  sauerkraut. 

In  the  streets,  in  hotels,  in  the  operas,  in  boarding  houses,  in  saloons — 
everywhere — one  is  confronted  with  the  professional  prostitute. 

The  social  evil  has  become  deeply  rooted  in  American  life.  There  are 
300,000  "felled"  girls  in  our  country,  one-half  of  them  from  Christian  homes 
or  Sunday  Schools,  and  the  rest  from  country  homes.  They  have  been  gotten 
into  the  haunts  of  shame  through  the  trickery  and  wiles  of  those  engaged  in 
the  "Traffic  in  Girls"  which  is  caused  by  the  traffic  in  drink.  Their  average 
life  is  five  years — 60,000  girls  dragged  down  to  this  life  every  year;  5,000 
a  month;  170  every  day,  or  a  young  life  blasted  in  our  blessed  land  every 
eight  minutes! 

Is  there  any  American  citizen  so  insane  that  he  will  for  one  minute  be- 
lieve that  American  women  are  so  bad  that  they  are  voluntarily  going  to 
the  bow-wows  at  the  rate  of  60,000  every  year  without  some  powerful  agency 
to  assist  them  on  the  downward  trend?  Not  by  any  means.  There  is  in 
this  country  an  organization  known  as  the  "Traffic  in  Girls,"  which  buys  and 
sells  in  the  haunts  of  shame,  thousands  of  white  slaves  every  year. 

Prostitution  is  organized  and  millions  of  dollars  are  expended  annually 
in  keeping  up  the  business  and  equipping  new  houses.  This  thing  goes  on 
because  twelve  million  voters,  and  four  million  of  them  Christian  (?)  fathers 
are  by  their  ballot,  authorizing  250,000  saloonkeepers  to  pour  the  liquid 
damnation   of  intoxicating  drink  down  the  throats   of  their  own    sons    and 


19 

daughters,  and  every  one  knows  the  physiological  influence  of  alcohol.  It 
always  goes  to  the  base  of  the  brain,  the  cerebellum,  to  the  lower  nature, 
and  those  men  who  are  naturally  chivalrous  in  their  feelings  toward 
womanhood  (as  most  men  are),  when  alcohol  takes  possession  of  brain 
and  heart,  there  leaps  to  the  lips  the  unclean  jest,  and  there  enters  the  heart 
the  unholy  motive  towards   woman. 

When  strong  drink  goes,  the  house  of  shame  will  go.  Once,  in  a  large 
city,  it  was  determined  that  no  beer  at  a  dollar  a  bottle,  or  champagne 
at  five  dollars  a  bottle,  should  be  sold  in  houses  of  shame,  and  the  keepers  of 
these  houses  went  to  the  mayor  and  told  him  they  could  not  carry  on  their 
business  unless  allowed  to  sell  liquor.  "Why  can't  you?"  asked  the  mayor. 
"Because  men  would  not  do  such  things  if  they  were  not  under  the  influence 
of  drink,  and  we  must  sell  them  drink  or  our  business  is  ruined." 

From  these  poor  white  slaves  the  task-masters  of  Springfield  extort 
blackmail  in  the  form  of  dollars  that  are  coined  from  the  blood  and  bone  and 
sinew  of  mothers'  girls. 

One  leaves  this  district  with  a  soul  filled  with  anguish.  If  the  pen  of  a 
Hugo  could  paint  the  misery  of  these  brothel  blocks  of  Springfield  life  just 
as  it  is  lived  year  after  year,  with  its  grist  of  death  and  misery,  it  would 
rival  Dante's  Inferno. 

BENEDICTINE 

What  is  it?  It  is  the  most  infamous  concoction  that  was  ever  invented 
to  assist  the  Devil  in  the  destruction  of  the  integrity  of  the  human  race. 
It  is  a  creation  of  the  Benedictine  Monks  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
I  have  in  my  possession  a  collection  of  the  bottles  and  printed  literature 
used  to  advertise  this  infamous  stuff.  It  is  a  criminal  product  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  and  relies  altogether  on  the  saloon  and  brothel  as  dis- 
tributing stations.  Nearly  every  saloon  carries  it  in  stock.  The  bottles  can 
be  seen  behind  the  bars  of  the  dive  saloons  of  Springfield,  especially  in  the 
Eagle  and  establishments  of  that  class.  The  Monks  hold  the  secret  of  its 
compounding.  As  a  beverage  it  instantly  kills  all  that  is  good  and  noble  in 
man  and  arouses  in  him  every  desire  that  is  low,  vulgar  and  criminal. 

It  is  used  for  the  purpose  of  arousing  an  abnormal  criminal  passion. 
It  has  been  the  great  curse  of  the  black  race  in  the  Southern  states.  The 
Southern  cross  road  beer  dive  has  been  one  of  its  great  market  centers.  Since 
the  Civil  War  35,000  white  women  have  suffered  the  terrible  agony  of  out- 
rage at  the  hands  of  black  fiendg  and  in  nearly  every  case  these  black  men 
were  transformed  into  fiends  by  the  use  of  this  drug.  Southern  custom  has 
established  an  unwritten  law  to  the  effect  that  if  a  black  man  sullies  the  body 
of  a  white  woman  he  must  die  without  the  expense  of  Judge  or  Jury.  The 
Negro  enjoys  life  as  well  as  any  other  man  and  is  not  going  to  commit 
suicide  by  becoming  a  rapist  if  he  is  in  his  right  mind.  These  crimes  com- 
mitted by  patrons  of  the  saloon  who  become  doped  with  this  stuff  until 
reason  is  dethroned  and  a  criminal,  unnatural  passion  takes  possession  of 
the  man  and  drives  him  to  the  commission  of  a  crime  that  he  would  never 
commit  if  in  his  right  mind. 

In  my  travels  through  the  South  I  have  made  it  a  point  to  investigate, 
and  I  h^ve  found  this  drug  on  sale  wherever  there  was  a  saloon  to  sell  it. 
It  is  noticeable  that  the  crime  of  rape  has  decreased  just  in  the  proportion 


20 

that  the  saloons  have  been  closed.     When  the  saloon  goes  Negroes  will  be- 
come useful  citizens,  and  our  families  will  be  safe. 

The  drug  is  also  used  by  dissolute  women  to  dope  the  fools  who  are  de- 
coyed into  their  tawdry  parlors.  The  man  then  becomes  an  easy  victim  of 
the  siren,  who  empties  his  pocketbook  and  then  kicks  him  out  into  the  street, 
where  a  policeman  finds  him  and  lands  him  in  the  city  prison. 

The  main  manufacturing  center  of  this  stuff  is  FaComp,  France.  A. 
LaGrand  Anine  is  the  principal  distributor  and  importer.  Millions  of  bot- 
tles are  imported  into  this  country  every  year  and  finds  a  sale  through 
American  saloons  and  brothels.  It  threatens  to  become  to  American  what 
Absinthe  has  been  to  many  European  countries. 

You  are  instructed  that  on  the  wax  seal  covering  the  cork  you  will  find 
an  image  of  Christ  bearing  a  shepherd's  crook ;  that  on  the  side  of  each  bot- 
tle will  be  found  the  Papal  coat  of  arms,  breast  plate,  Pope's  Tiara,  Shep- 
herd's crook  and  the  Shamrock;  that  on  the  leaden  ligature  surrounding  the 
neck  of  the  bottle  will  be  found  the  following:  fVERITABLE  BENE- 
DICTINE MONK  LIQUEURf;  that  on  each  side  of  the  bottle  will  be  found 
the  initials  of  a  Latin  Church  maxim — D.  O.  M.,  which  in  Latin 
reads  as  follows:  "Deo  Optimo  Maximo;"  in  English,  "To  God  the 
Greatest  and  the  Best."  On  the  back  of  each  bottle  we  find  in  raised  glass 
type  the  following  fBenedictinef.  Every  bottle  of  this  most  infamous  stuff 
is  literally  covered  with  insignia  of 'the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

A  large  wrapper  is  found  around  every  bottle  asi  it  is  removed  from  the 
shipping  case.  This  wrapper  contains  instructions  in  Latin,  English,  Ger- 
man, French  and  Spanish  as  to  where  to  examine  the  bottles  to  be  sure  you 
are  purchasing  the  genuine  products  of  the  Benedictine  Monks  of  the  Holy 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  These  Imps  of  Hell  seem  to  fear  rivalry  in  their 
infamous  business. 

The  Roman  Church  will  stoop  to  any  depths  of  infamy  for  gold,  and 
she  is  reaping  a  golden  harvest  be  debauching  thousands  of  our  American 
men  and  boys  through  the  sale  of  her  criminal  concoctions.  And  in  the  face 
of  these  terrible  and  startling  truths  we  have  some  lukewarm  Protestants, 
some  temperance  workers  and  Prohibitionists  who  are  silent  on  Romanism; 
who  actually  bow  before  the  Mother  of  Harlots,  drunken  for  centuries  on  the 
blood  of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus  Christ. 

James  Gibbons,  John  Ireland  and  all  Roman  Ecclesiastics  have  recently 
declared  their  vigorous  opposition  to  prohibition  of  the  Gin-Mill.  No  wonder 
when  80  per  cent  of  these  vile  dens  are  run  by  Irish  Catholic  thugs  and 
Rome  is  making  millions  of  dollars  through  the  sale  of  her  vile  poisons. 
Americans,  wake  up !  Romanism  is  the  insatiable  octopus  that  is  sapping  the 
life  blood  of  the  American  Republic. 

The  Roman  Church  mobs  speakers  for  telling  the  truth. 

So  does  the  saloon. 

The  Roman  Church  takes  the  lives  of  those  who  have  the  courage  to  ex- 
pose her  iniquities. 

So  does  the  saloon. 

The  Roman  Church  corrupts  politics. 

So  does  the  saloon. 

The  Roman  Church  corrupts  the  morals  of  the  people. 

So  does  the  saloon. 


*   ■- 


21 

The  Roman  Church  has  a  close  relation  to  the  slums. 

So  does  the  saloon. 

The  Roman  Church  fills  the  people's  minds  with  superstition. 

The  saloon  fills  their  minds  with  corrupt  ideas. 

The  Roman  Church  hates  the  public  school  because  it  teaches  the  truths 
of  history. 

The  saloon  hates  the  public  school  because  it  teaches  the  effects  of  alcohol 
on  the  human  system. 

The  Roman  Church  maintains  a  system  of  convent  prisons  where  women 
have  been  outraged  to  gratify  the  lusts  of  drunken  Priests. 

The  saloon  is  responsible  for  the  maintenance  of  a  brothel  system  where 
white  slave  girls   are  maintained  for  criminal  purposes. 

The  Roman  Church  is  foreign  to  American  soil. 

So  is  the  saloon. 

The  great  majority  of  Roman  Priests  are  foreigners. 

So  are  the  saloonkeepers. 

The  Roman  Church  robs  the  people  and  gives  them  only  poverty  in  ex- 
change for  their  money. 

So  does  the  saloon. 

The  stronger  the  Roman  Church  the  more  misery  and  poverty  among  the 

people. 

The  same  is  true  in  regard  to  the  saloon. 

The  Roman  Church  unfurls  a  foreign  flag. 

The  saloon  fosters  the  red  flag. 

The  Roman  Church  maintains  its  own  system  of  government. 

If  the  saloon  possessed  the  power  it  would  annihiliate  all  government. 

Rome  fears  the  truth. 

The  saloon  hates  the  light. 

Rome  opposes  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools. 

The  saloon  opposes  it  everywhere. 

Most  Priests  have  red  noses. 

Bartenders  ditto. 

Rome  helps  no  great  moral  reform. 

The  saloon  opposes  everything  good. 

Put  a  cross  on  the  chimney  and  a  dog  collar  on  the  bartender  and  you 
have  transformed  a  saloon  into  a  Roman  Church. 

I  will  speak  against  Romanism  as  long  as  I  live. 

Because  Rome  invented  every  instrument  of  crime  and  cruelty  with  which 
to  search  for  every  nerve    of  pain  in  the  human  body. 

Because  the  Roman  church  is  a  gigantic  system  of  graft,  robbing  and 
impoverishing  millions  of  confiding  and  innocent  people  in  the  name  of 
religion. 

Because  this  rotten  system  is  founded  on  the  erring  traditions  of  men 
and  not  the  living  word  of  God. 

Because  it  has  bathed  the  world  in  the  richest  blood  of  Christian  man- 
hood. 

Because  it  built  the  Inquisition,  the  stake,  the  rack,  and  the  dungeon. 

Because  it  has  arraigned  itself  in  opposition  to  every  righteous  principle 
of  government. 


22 

Because  it  is  dumping  the  riffraff  of  Europe  upon  our  shores  and  filling 
our  cities  with  an  indigestible  horde  of  fgnorant  foreigners. 

Because  it  insults  our  flag  by  unfurling  a  foreign  rag  as  a  substitute  for 
the  banner  of  freedom. 

Because  it  insults  our  free  schools  system  by  substituting  for  it  a  paro- 
chial school,  which  is  graduating  thousands  of  assassins  for  future  mayors, 
governors  and  presidents. 

Because  it  teaches  the  boycott  and  justifies  mob  rule,  which  means  future 
strikes  to  tie  up  the  business  and  commerce  of  the  nation. 

Because  Catholic  wards  are  the  slum  wards  of  every  city. 

Because  Rum,  Romanism  and  Prostitution  go  hand  in  hand. 

Because  Rome  opposes  free  speech,  free  press  and  a  free  conscience. 

Because  Rome  is  the  uncompromising  enemy  of  our  free  public  schools. 

Because  Rome  places  the  canon  laws  of  the  church  above  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States. 

Because  every  priest  is  an  anarchist  opposing  our  free  institutions  and 
holding  oath-bound  allegiance  to  a  foreign  potentate. 

Because  the  Popes  of  Rome  have  been  the  vilest  monsters  of  the  world, 
committing  every  crime  in  the  calender  of  error. 

Because  Rome  blesses  saloonkeepers  who  deal  out  death  and  damnation, 
and  at  the  same  time,  eternally  damns  honest  parents  who  send  their  children 
to  public  schools. 

Because  Romanism  is  in  the  majority  in  every  prison,  reformatory  and 
penitentiary  in  the  United  States. 

Because  Rome  gave  us  Bath  House  John,  Hinkey  Dink,  Johnny  Powers, 
and  ninety  per  cent  of  the  red-nosed,  plug  uglies  who  debauch  the  politics  of 
our  nation. 

Because  Rome  gave  the  Molly  Maguires,  the  Clan-na-gaels,  the  Hiber- 
nians; and  is  the  spawning  bed  of  crime  in  this  country. 

Because  Romanism  debauches,  damns  and  destroys  the  civilization  of 
every  nation  where  it  gains  control. 

Because  a  priest  will  take  the  last  dollar  from  the  bleeding  and  calloused 
hand  of  an  Irish  widow,  to  pray  the  soul  of  a  dead  husband  out  of  purgatory, 
and  in  so  doing  becomes  an  imposter  and  a  humbug. 

Because  a  Roman  priest  is  no  better  than  a  highwayman.  A  high- 
wayman puts  his  pistol  in  your  face  and  says,  "Give  me  your  money  or  I 
will  blow  out  your  brains,"  while  a  priest  puts  his  catechism  in  your  face 
and  says,  "Give  me  your  brains  and  I  will  blow  in  your  money." 

Because  when  John  L.  Sullivan,  the  supreme  bully  of  the  world,  was 
supposed  to  be  dying  in  a  Boston  hospital,  they  performed  "extreme  unction" 
on  him  and  declared  him  fit  for  heaven. 

Because  it  endeavors  to  transplant  the  word  of  God  with  such  monstrous 
absurdities  as  purgatory,  infallibility,  auricular  confession,  image  worship, 
Mary  worship,  celibacy,  transsubstantiation,  extreme  unction,  holy  beads, 
holy  grease,  holy  water,  holy  scapulars,  holy  relics,  holy  prayer  books,  etc. 

Because  it  furnished  the  inhuman  monsters  who  assassinated  Carter 
Harrison,  Wm.  McKinley  and  the  immortal  Lincoln. 

Because  authentic  history  proves  that  Rome  has  slain  70,550,114  Pro- 
testant martyrs,  as  follows: 


23 


Killed  under   Pope   Julian 200,000 

By  the  French  Massacre 109,000 

By  the  wars  of  Waldenses 150,000 

By  the  war  of  Albigenses 150,000 

By  Jesuit  mobs  and  tortures 900,000 

By   Duke   of    Alva's   orders 136,000 

By  tortures  of  the  Inquisition 150,000 

By    Irish    Massacre 150,000 

By  wars  of  Moors  in  Spain 1,5000,000 

By  wars  of  Jews  in  Europe 1,100,000 

In  Mexico, 'South  America  and  Cuba 15,000,000 

Under    Queen    Mary 23,000 

East    Indies,    Europe,    America 50,000,000 

In  Mexico  in  the  year  1895  by  torture  and  fire 14 

Because  through  all  history  she  has  proven  herself  the  mother  of  ignor- 
ance, intolerance  and  superstition. 

Because  the  Roman  Catholic  church  is  today  what  she  always  was — the 
intolerant,  blood-thirsty  tiger.     On  her  own  testimony  she  cannot  change. 

"Et  Semper  Eadem." 

For  these  and  a  thousand  other  reasons,  I  will,  while  I  live,  hold  up  the 
glories  of  Protestantism  and  oppose  and  denounce  the  infamies  of  Romanism. 

THE  SPRINGFIELD  RIOTS 

A  mob  is  a  sad  discord  in  American  civilization.  It  is  the  concentrated 
essence  of  Anarchy  and  fiendish  malice.  It  is  the  vilest  viper  that  ever 
reared  its  hydra  head  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  free  nation.  Any  individual 
who  participates  in  a  mob  or  by  word  or  deed  fans  the  fury  of  the  mob  be- 
comes an  Anarchist,  red  handed  and  damnable  and  forfeits  his  right  to  live 
in  a  free  country.  The  mob  raves,  it  does  not  reason.  It  punishes  the  in- 
nocent with  the  guilty.  It  unnecessarily  endangers  life  and  property.  It 
goes  back  beyond  the  primitive  savage  for  means  and  methods.  It  usurps 
the  court  and  strikes  its  devilish  blows  at  the  very  foundations  of  the  nation. 
It  raises  its  red  hand  dripping  with  innocent  blood  and  levels  its  sword  at 
Columbia's  heart. 

The  hand  of  the  mob  rested  on  the  cruel  bludgeon  that  felled  Charles 
Summer  to  the  floor  in  the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  United  States.  The  mob 
shed  the  blood  of  Lovejoy  at  Alton;  endeavored  to  tear  William  Lloyd  Gar- 
rison limb  from  limb  in  the  streets  of  Boston,  and  assailed  Wendell  Phillips 
and  John  B.  Gough  in  the  Cradle  of   Liberty. 

There  are  two  forms  of  Anarchy  in  this  country  at  the  present  time 
which  seriously  threaten  the  stability  of  the  Government. 

One  is  represented  by  that  type  of  time-serving  politician,  who,  when 
elected  to  positions  of  trust,  takes  the  oath  of  office  to  enforce  the  law  and 
then  maliciously  and  deliberately  tramples  upon  the  law  and  makes  it  a 
thing  of  contempt.  The  other  is  represented*  by  another  lawless  element 
which  endeavors  to  administer  the  law  by  mob  violence.  The  former  Anarch- 
ist produces  the  latter.  The  ignorant  rabble  learns  disregard  of  law  very 
readily  from  the  illustrious  outlaws  in  office. 


24 

Springfield  is  the  state  capital  of  a  great  and  glorious  commonwealth. 
Under  the  very  observation  of  the  Governor  this  capital  city  has  become 
notorious  as  a  center  for  all  forms  of  vice  and  lawlessness.  The  mayor's 
office  has  been  equally  blind  in  relation  to  the  criminal  conditions  of  the  city. 

There  is  a  law  on  the  statute  books  of  Illinois  and  in  the  ordinance  book 
of  Springfield  prohibiting  houses  of  shame.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  laws 
Springfield  criminally  tolerates  one  of  the  most  notorious  red  light  districts 
to  be  found  in  any  city  of  its  class  in  the  United  States. 

Standing  in  the  door  of  the  Police  Court  of  Springfield  one  can  fire  a 
pistol  ball  over  several  solid  blocks  of  places  of  ill-repute  ranging  from  the 
lowest  and  dirtiest  dives  imaginable  to  the  most  luxurious  and  aristocratic 
palaces  of  sin.  They  exist  in  violation  of  law,  under  police  surveillance  and 
by  virtue  of  the  vilest  system  of  toleration  ever  devised  by  the  vampires  of 
the  under-world.  The  trend  of  municipal  government  seems  to  be  toward 
grand  larceny. 

The  State  Government  is  no  better.  Governor  Deneen,  though  in  full 
knowledge  of  the  lawlessness  of  the  capital  city,  has  offered  no  protest. 
And  why  should  he  when  his  picture  hung  in  the  windows  of  the  lowest 
dives  in  Springfield  and  Chicago  as  the  favorite  candidate  of  the  short  hairs 
and  silk  stockings  during  the  recent  campaign. 

The  brothel  pimps,  gamblers  and  saloonkeepers  lined  up  for  this  man 
because  from  him  they  had  nothing  to  fear. 

When  Governor  Frank  J.  Hanley  of  Indiana  came  to  Springfield  to 
speak  against  the  saloons  in  the  Local  Option  campaign  of  1908,  Governor 
Deneen  insulted  him  by  refusing  to  appear  on  the  same  platform  with  him 
during  this  great  fight  for  civic  righteousness  in  the  capital  city  of  Illinois. 

The  most  disgraceful  spectacle  in  the  history  of  Illinois  was  the  Yates- 
Deneen  campaign  before  the  primaries.  If  what  these  two  men  have  said 
about  each  other  is  true  they  are  the  two  biggest  rascals  that  ever  escaped  a 
felon's  cell,  and  if  what  they  said  about  each  other  is  not  true  they  should 
go  on  record  at  the  two  champion  liars  of  this  universe.  And  one  of  these 
men,  through  the  difference  of  good  citizens  and  the  unity  of  bad  ones,  fills, 
or  tries  to  fill,  the  Governor's  chair  at  Springfield. 

Years  of  lawlessness  by  Mayors  and  Governors  who  refuse  to  enforce 
the  law,  and  who  for  political  expediency  wink  at  the  men  who  violate  the 
law,  has  educated  the  masses  down  to  a  level  of  their  low  standard  of  politi- 
cal conduct. 

For  years  the  houses  of  ill-fame  have  flaunted  their  brazeness  in  the  face 
of  society  in  violation  of  law  and  with  the  full  consent  of  the  public  officials. 

For  years  the  saloons  have  run  with  wine  rooms  in  connection,  in  viola- 
violation  of  law  and  with  a  full  consent  of  the  officials. 

For  years  the  saloons  have  run  with  wine  rooms  inconnection,  in  viola- 
tion of  law  and  with  full  consent  of  the  officials. 

For  years  the  saloons  have  been  selling  liquor  to  minors  and  habitual 
drunkards  in  violation  of  law  and  under  the  observation  of  the  police  and 
with  a  full  knowledge  of  all  city  officials. 

For  years  gambling  has  flourished  in  violation  of  law,  under  the  observa- 
tion of  the  police  and  with  full  knowledge  of  the  officials. 

For  years  mere  lads  in  their  teens  have  been   patronizing  the  brothels 


25 

under  the  observation  of  the  police  and  with  a  full  knowledge  of  all  city 
officials. 

All  these  forms  of  vice  and  crime  run  wide  open  under  the  toleration  and 
often  with  the  encouragement  of  state  and  city  officials  has  been  an  open 
school  of  crime  from  which  the  people,  the  citizenship,  have  to  a  fright- 
ful extent  graduated  into  an  utter  disregard  for  law. 

The  city  has  reaped  its  reward  in  a  mighty  whirlwind  of  death  and 
blood,  resulting  in  a  reign  of  terror,  the  loss  of  a  vast  amount  of  property, 
including  various  places  of  business,  the  burning  of  forty  residences  and  the 
loss  of  seven  human  lives,  also  the  killing  of  a  boy  by  the  military  while  on 
their  way  to  the  city. 

And  still  the  old  conditions  prevail.  The  saloons  are  still  harboring 
prostitutes.  The  brothels  are  still  running  in  the  same  old  shameless  man- 
ner, and  municipal  reform  is  needed  today  as  much  as  ever. 

The  better  class  of  citizens  in  Springfield  realize  the  situation  and  are 
fighting  for  better  conditions. 

Hon.  E.  L.  Chapin,  president  of  the  Springfield  Business  Men's  Associa- 
tion, who  was  chosen  as  president  of  the  state  association  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
in  his  address  declared  that  a  cowardly  spirit  was  shown  by  the  officials  of 
Springfield  during  the  recent  riots  and  that  the  same  spirit  was  much  in 
evidence  in  the  jury  box  during  the  trials  of  those  who  were  charged  with 
having  taken  an  active  part  in  the  riots. 

In  a  few  well  pointed  remarks  he  stated  that  the  riots  had  disgraced  the 
fair  name  of  Springfield  and  hoped  that  the  presence  of  several  hundred 
Christian  young  men  in  the  city  would  have  a  beneficial  influence  on  its 
citizens. 

But  some  who  do  not  care  for  or  respect  the  tradition  and  principles  of 
American  law  and  civilization  have  said  that  the  colored  problem  entered  in- 
to this  situation  and  altered  the  case — -not  at  all.  A  man  is  not  to  blame 
for  the  color  of  his  skin,  the  shape  of  his  nose  or  the  kink  in  his  hair.  He 
is  a  human  being,  a  creature  made  by  the  hand  of  God,  and  as  an  American 
citizen  is  entitled  to  the  full  protection  of  the  law. 

All  men,  black  and  white,  should  obey  the  law,  and  all  men,  black  and 
white,  should  be  impartially  punished  when  they  violate  the  law. 

All  men  must  stand  equally  before  the  law. 

We  cannot  maintain  a  government  of  race  distinctions.  The  sacred  dust 
of  Lincoln  is  at  rest  under  a  splendid  monument  in  the  suburbs  of  Spring- 
field. The  pilgrims  pause  to  worship  at  his  shrine.  I  imagine  I  see  him 
now,  walking  the  streets  of  Richmond,  laying  his  hand  on  the  bowed  and 
weeping  heads  of  the  freshly  emancipated  slaves  and  telling  them  not  to 
kneel  before  him,  but  to  stand  erect  before  the  world  and  prove  the  worth 
of  their  freedom. 

Lincoln,  the  noblest,  truest,  tenderest  man  whose  feet  have  pressed  the 
soil  of  this  earth  since  the  sandaled  feet  of  Christ  struggled  up  the  rough 
and  stony  path  of  martyrdom  on  Calvary's  brow.  He  was  a  friend  of  the 
race  that  has  produced  a  Fred  Douglas  and  a  Paul  Laurence  Dunbar. 

The  colored  people  naturally  and  justly  looked  upon  Lincoln  as  their 
savior,  and  naturally  many  hundreds  of  them  were  drawn  to  Springfield, 
the  city  honored  as  the  resting  place  of  him  who  broke  the  fetters  from 
their  limbs.     These  colored  people  settled  in  certain  neighborhoods  through- 


26 

out  the  city.  When  the  eternal  greed  for  gold  caused  a  chain  of  low,  vicious 
dives  to  be  planted  in  these  localities,  and  naturally  hundreds  of  these  colored 
people  were  debauched  and  became  "undesirable  citizens."  These  same  con- 
ditions would  have  come  about  had  any  other  race  of  people  been  located  in 
these  neighborhoods.  No  people  can  maintain  their  integrity  environed  by 
the  saloon. 

We  have  a  large  class  of  American  citizens  who  have  amassed  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  property,  who  have  good  bank  accounts;  who  strut  in 
good  clothes,  sport  in  clubs  and  select  society,  occupy  special  boxes  at  the 
opera  and  look  pious  in  the  cushioned  pews  of  a  fashionable  church  on  Sun- 
day with  Dr.  Dodgethetruth  for  a  pastor;  who  believe  in  the  saloon — not 
located  in  their  aristocratic  neighborhood  but  located  down  in  the  ward 
where  working  men  and  colored  people  live;  for  who  cares  if  their  sons  and 
daughters  are  corrupted? 

They  believe  that  the  saloon  is  a  financial  benefit,  inasmuch  as  it  is  be- 
lieved to  reduce  their  taxes  and  furnish  a  revenue  for  the  operation  of  the 
city  government.  And  by  keeping  the  saloon  out  of  their  select  localities 
they  imagine  that  they  are  escaping  its  baneful  influences. 

Oh!  how  this  illusion  would  be  dispelled  my  Springfield  citizens,  if  you 
could  have  been  with  me  on  a  midnight  tour  of  inspection  through  the  slums 
of  your  city  and  seen  as  I  did,  sons,  and  sometimes  daughters,  from  the  first 
families  of  the  city  treading  the  very  quicksands  of  Hell,  entering  the  dives, 
the  Chop  Suey  houses  and  doing  the  sights  of  the  red  light  district. 

In  debauching  these  colored  districts  a  whole  city  has  been  debauched, 
black  and  white  alike.  The  negro  is  criticised  because  of  the  crimes  he  com- 
mitted against  womanhood.  Alcohol  is  the  direct  or  indirect  cause  in  nearly 
every  case.  In  the  city  of  Springfield  these  dive  saloons  have  been  vomiting 
out  upon  the  streets  a  lot  of  young  toughs,  white  brutes  or  man-animals, 
who,  if  they  see  a  negro  girl  on  the  streets  who  is  at  all  attractive  in  face 
or  form  will  trail  her  with  vile  insults  to  the  very  door  of  her  home.  All 
this  human  depravity  comes  direct  from  the  saloon. 

The  saloon  is  the  cause  of  Springfield's  degradation  today. 

The  saloon  is  the  cause  of  mob  rule  and  the  loss  of  life  and  property. 

The  saloon  is  the  cause  of  corrupt  politics. 

The  saloon  is  the  cause  of  a  prostituted  public  conscience. 

The  saloon  has  degraded  both  black  and  white  citizens  and  engendered 
this  bitter  race  hatred. 

The  saloon  is  the  school  that  graduates  the  thief,  the  thug,  the  high- 
wayman and  the  murderer. 

The  saloon  is  the  home  of  the  lewd  picture,  the  obscene  song  and  the  vile 
story. 

The  saloon  is  the  cause  of  the  unspeakable  traffic  in  white  slave  girls. 

Wipe  out  the  saloon  and  you  settle  the  race  question.  Any  number  of 
black  and  white  men  can  live  peaceably  in  this  country  sober,  but  no  number 
of  black  and  white  men  can  live  in  this  country  peaceably  if  they  are  made 
drunken    in  the  saloon. 

The  following  from  a  Springfield  Daily  shows  the  manner  in  which  in- 
jured people  are  asking  the  city  to  make  good  the  losses  sustained  during 
the  riots.     All  this  expense  and  litigation  might  have  been   saved  had  the 


27 

people  some  years  ago  elected  honest  men  to  office,  enforced  the  law  and 
closed  the  dives. 

Damage  suits  aggregating  $50,000  were  filed  in  the  Sangamon  circuit 
court  by  persons  who  had  sustained  damage  to  property  at  the  hands  of 
the  mob  which  ran  riot  in  the  city  during  the  nights  of  August  14  and  15. 

A  damage  suit  for  $20,000  was  filed  by  Harry  T.  Loper  against  the  city 
of  Springfield.  Loper  is  suing  for  the  destruction  of  his  place  of  business 
by  the  rioters  on  the  night  of  August  14.  The  entire  restaurant,  buffet  and 
automobile  were  destroyed  by  the  mob  that  had  gathered  in  front  of  his  place 
to  wreak  vengeance  for  taking  two  negro  prisoners  out  of  the  city. 

William  Smith,  Sr.,  and  William  Smith,  Jr.,  both  filed  suits  against  the 
city  of  Springfield  for  $5,000  each.  The  parties  claim  that  they  were  in- 
jured during  the  riot.  Oswald  Donnigan,  son  of  William  Donnigan,  the 
negro  lynched  the  night  of  August  15,  would  like  to  collect  $5,000  for  injuries 
sustained  on  the  night  of  August  15,  during  the  riot.  He  claims  he  was  shot 
that  night  by  members  of  the  mob. 

Emma  Ballard,  Blanche  Ballard  and  Marie  Ballard  sue  Jacob  Olion,  et  al, 
for  $5,000  for  selling  liquor  to  Jos  James,  who  later  killed  their  husband  and 
father. 

Rollin  G.  Sturgiss,  the  waiter  at  Loper's  restaurant,  who  was  injured 
on  the  night  of  the  riot  in  front  of  the  restaurant,  sued  the  city  for  $5,000. 

I  will  close  the  chapter  with  the  brave,  strong  words  of  Frank  J.  Hanley 
of  Indiana. 

"I  hate  the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors.  I  hate  it  for  its  arrogance. 
I  hate  it  for  its  hypocrisy.  I  hate  it  for  its  craft  and  false  pretense.  I  hate 
it  for  its  commercialism.  I  hate  it  for  its  greed  and  avarice.  I  hate  it  for 
its  sordid  love  of  gain  at  any  price.  I  hate  it  for  its  domination  in  politics. 
I  hate  it  for  corrupting  influence  in  civic  affairs.  I  hate  it  for  its  incessant 
effort  to  debauch  the  suffrage  of  the  country;  for  the  cowards  it  makes  of 
public  men.  I  hate  it  for  its  utter  disregard  of  law.  I  hate  it  for  its  ruth- 
less trampling  of  the  solemn  compacts  of  state  constitutions.  I  hate  it 
for  the  load  it  straps  to  labor's  back;  for  the  palsied  hands  it  gives  to  toil; 
for  its  wounds  to  genius;  for  the  tragedy  of  its  might-have-beens.  I  hate 
it  for  the  human  wrecks  it  has  caused.  I  hate  it  for  the  alms-houses  it 
peoples;  for  the  prisons  it  fills;  for  the  insanity  it  begets;  for  its  countless 
graves  in  Potter's  fields.  I  hate  it  for  the  mental  ruin  it  imposes  upon  its 
victims;  for  its  spiritual  blight;  for  its  moral  degradation.  I  hate  it  for  the 
crimes  it  has  committed.  I  hate  it  for  the  homes  it  has  destroyed.  I  hate 
it  for  the  hearts  it  has  broken.  I  hate  it  for  the  malice  it  has  planted  in  the 
hearts  of  men — for  its  poison,  for  its  bitterness — for  the  dead  sea  fruit 
with  which  it  starves  their  souls. 

"I  hate  it  for  the  grief  it  causes  womanhood — the  scalding  tears;  the 
hopes  deferred;  the  strangled  aspirations;  the  burdens  of  want  and  care. 

"I  hate  it  for1  the  heartless  cruelty  to  the  aged,  the  infirm  and  the  help- 
less ;  for  the  shadow  it  throws  upon  the  lives  of  children ;  for  its  monstrous 
injustice  to  little  ones. 

"I  hate  it  as  virtue  hates  vice;  as  truth  hates  error;  as  righteousness 
hates  sin;  as  justice  hates  wrong;  as  liberty  hates  tyranny;  as  freedom  hates 
despotism." 


28 
THE  WHISKEY  DEVIL 

The  aristocratic  den  is  the  most  dangerous  of  the  two.  Men  and  boys 
who  have  self-respect  will  enter  the  high-toned  place,  but  will  not  enter 
the  low  dive.     The  dive  saloon  finishes  the  work  the  high-toned  saloon  has 

commenced.  .        , 

For  every  dollar  received  by  the  government  as  a  license  revenue  tor  the 
liquor  traffic,  the  taxpayers  of  the  nation  are  put  to  an  expense  of  ten  dollars 
to  care  for  the  orphans,  paupers,  criminals,  and  epileptics  resulting  directly 

from  the  drink  traffic.  ji.i_.lx. 

Their   revenue  is  the  bribe   money  that  buys   the   right  to   debauch  the 

Tuition's  conscience. 

Their  millions  is  but  the  shame-gold  blistered  with  the  hot  tears  that  have 
fallen  from  the  eyes  of  millions  of  broken-hearted  wives  and  mothers. 

The  clink  of  the  distiller's  gold  may  drown  the  orphan's  cry,  and  the 
widow's  moan,  but  in  the  hour  of  death  this  King  of  Hell's  worse  business, 
in  the  Gethsemane  agony  of  a  tortured  conscience,  will  see  on  his  own  hands 
the  red  blood  of  rum-murdered  victims. 

In  the  splendid  words  of  Robert  Ingersoll :  "I  believe  that  from  the  time 
it  issues  from  the  coiled  and  poisonous  worm  in  the  distillery  until  it  empties 
into  the  hell  of  death,  dishonor  and  crime,  it  demoralizes  everybody  that 
touches  it,  from  its  source  to  where  it  ends." 

"The  wreck  of  a  man  on  the  sidewalk."  has  become  a  sight  so  common 
on  the  streets  of  American  cities,  that  the  public  conscience  is  seared.  In 
the  early  morning  not  long  ago  as  I  was  passing  a  low  Springfield  groggery, 
the  door  was  thrust  open  and  a  man  was  thrown  out  upon  the  walk.  He 
staggered  against  the  building  and  in  a  moment  fell  heavily  upon  the 
pavement.  A  morbid  crowd  soon  gathered.  The  poor  fellow  begged  for  some 
one  to  help  him  toward  home,  and  was  answered  only  by  jibes  and  jeers  of  a 
heartless  crowd.  The  lost  will-power  and  manhood  of  the  poor  drunkard  to- 
gether with  the  lack  of  human  sympathy  on  the  part  of  a  large  crowd  of  his 
fellow  citizens  made  up  one  of  the  saddest  scenes  upon  which  my  eyes  ever 
rested.  I  learned  later  that  he  went  about  the  city  earning  his  drinks  by 
sweeping  floors  and  cleaning  spittoons  and  these  words  of  Lowell  came  to 
me  as  a  fitting  description  of  the  scene: 

"The  good  Father  of  us  all  had  doubtless  intrusted  to  the  keeping  of 
this  child  of  His  certain  faculties  of  a  constructive  kind.  He  had  put  in  him 
a  share  of  that  vital  force,  the  nicest  economy  of  every  minute  atom  of  which 
is  necessary  to  the  perfect  development  of  humanity.  He  had  given  him  a 
brain  and  heart  and  so  had  equipped  his  soul  with  the  two  strong  wings  of 
knowledge  and  love,  whereby  it  can  mount  to  hang  its  nest  under  the  eaves 
of  heaven.  And  this  child,  so  dowered,  He  had  intrusted  to  the  keeping  of 
his  vicar,  the  State.  How  stands  the  account  of  that  stewardship?  The 
State,  or  Society  (call  it  what  you  will)  had  taken  no  manner  of  thought  of 
him  until  she  saw  him  swept  into  the  street,  the  pitiful  leavings  of  last 
night's  debauch,  with  cigar  ends,  lemon  parings,  tobacco  quids,  slops,  vile 
stenches,  and  the  whole  loathsome  next  morning  of  the  bar-room — an  own 
child  of  the  Almighty  God!  I  remember  him  as  he  was  brought  in  to  be 
christened,  a  ruddy,  rugged  babe;  and  now  there  he  wallows,  reeking,  seeth- 
ing— the  dead  corpse,  not  of  a  man  but  of  a  soul,  a  putrefying  lump,  horrible 


29 

for  the  life  that  is  in  it.  Soon  the  wind  of  heaven,  that  good  Samaritan, 
parts  the  hair  upon  his  forehead,  nor  is  not  too  nice  to  kiss  those  parched, 
cracked  lips;  the  morning  opens  upon  him  her  eyes  full  of  pitying  sunshine, 
the  sky  yearns  down  to  him,  and  there  he  lies  fermenting." 

There  are  a  good  many  such  in  the  great  whiskey  city  of  Springfield  and 
in  the  eternal  reckoning  someone  must  render  an  account. 

The  beer  garden  is  another  corrupting  agency.  Rescue  missionaries  say 
that  in  nine  months  after  the  beer  gardens  open,  every  bed  in  the  inlaying 
hospital  will  be  occupied  by  an  expectant  mother.  Springfield  has  a  large 
number  of  these  immoral  resorts.  The  twin  sister  of  the  beer  garden  is  the 
dance  evil.  You  "don't  see  any  harm  in  dancing?"  All  right;  but  you  don't 
want  your  girls  to  dance  every  year  on  the  free-for-all  dance  platforms  of 
the  summer  beer  gardens.  Besides  the  open  beer  garden  Springfield  can  boast 
of  her  private  dancing  schools  presided  over  by  cultured  (?)  dancing 
masters.  The  ball  room  is  simply  next  door  to  the  brothel.  If  the  young 
women  who  frequent  the  dance  halls  could  hear  the  discussions  in  the  side 
rooms  among  the  men  who  swing  them  in  the  round  dance — and  who  discuss 
their  good  and  bad  qualities  just  as  a  sport  will  discuss  the  good  and  bad 
qualities  of  a  race  horse,  no  decent  woman  would  ever  enter  another  den  of 
this  kind. 

"Once,  when  upon  a  slumming  trip,  a  reporter  on  a  large  city  daily, 
pointing  up  to  a  public  ball  room  where  thel  blazing  lights  showed  the  wirl- 
ing  forms  of  many  couples,  locked  in  each  other's  embrace,  said,  "More 
girls  have  been  ruined  through  these  ball  rooms  than  in  any  other  way  except 
through  the  wine  rooms  of  our  city." 

"What  are  the  amusements  of  the  denizens  and  patrons  of  houses  of 
shame?  Come  with  me  some  night,  and  what  will  we  find?  first,  and  always, 
the  dance,  so  much  so,  that  those  dens  of  sin  are  called  dance  houses,  then 
card  playing,   cigarette   smoking  and  wine  drinking. 

"One  of  the  ablest  women  of  America  says  of  her  own  experience  in  the 
dance,  "I  am  speaking  openly  and  frankly  and  when  I  say  I  did  not  under- 
stand what  I  felt  or  what  were  the  real  and  greatest  pleasures  I  derived 
from  the  so-called  dancing,  I  expect  to  be  believed;  but  if  my  cheecks  grew 
red  with  uncomprehended  pleasure  then,  they  grow  pale  with  shame  today, 
when  I  think  of  it  all.  It  was  the  physical  emotions  engendered  by  the  mag- 
netic contact  of  strong  men  that  I  was  enamored  of,  not  of  the  dance,  nor 
even  of  the  men  themselves.  Thus  I  became  abnormally  developed  in  my 
lower  nature.  I  grew  bolder,  and  from  being  able  to  return  shy  glances  at 
first,  was  soon  able  to  meet  more  daring  ones,  until  the  waltz  became  to  me, 
and  whosoever  danced  with  me,  one  lingering,  sweet  and  purely  sensual 
pleasure,  where  heart  beat  against  heart,  hand  was  held  in  hand,  and  eyes 
looked  burning  words  which  lips  dared  not  speak. 

"Married  now,  and  with  home  and  children  around  me,  I  can  at  least 
thank  God  for  the  experience  which  will  assuredly  be  the  means  of  prevent- 
ing my  little  daughters  from  indulging  in  any  such  dangerous  pleasure.  But 
if  a  young  girl,  pure  and  innocent  in  the  beginning,  can  be  brought  to  feel 
what  I  have  confessed  to  have  felt,  what  must  be  the  experience  of  a  married 
woman?  She  knows  what  every  glance  of  the  eye,  every  bend  of  the  head, 
every  close  clasp  means,  and  knowing  that,  reciprocates  it,  and  is  led  by 
swifter  step  and  surer  path  down  the  dangerous,  dishonorable  road. 


30 

"I  have  not  hesitated  to  lay  bare  what  are  a  young  girl's  most  secret 
thoughts,  in  the  hope  that  people  will  stop  and  at  least  consider  before  hand- 
ing their  lilies  of  purity  over  to  the  arms  of  any  one  who  may  choose  to 
blow  the  frosty  breath  of  dishonor  on  their  petals." 

If  every  parent  in  Springfield  would  read  that  startling  little  book,  "From 
the  Ball  Room  to  Hell,"  the  professional  dancing  master  would  not  have 
much  to  do  in  that  city  for  a  while. 

Some  time  ago  a  Springfield  saloonkeeper  hung  on  the  wall  of  his  dive 
this  sign:  "All  nations  welcome  except  Carrie  Nation."  Here  are  a  few 
others  which  would  be  very  appropriate  for  this  rendezvous  of  drunken  and 
debauched  men :  "Suicide  Whiskey,"  "Penitentiary  Gin,"  "Delirium  Tremens 
Cocktails,"  "Home  Wrecking  Beer."  Put  these  out  Mr.  Saloonkeeper  in 
front  of  your  licensed  Hell  and  tell  your  patrons  what  you  are  giving  them. 

One  thing  noticeable  in  Sprinfield,  was  the  fact  that  not  a  prominent 
hotel  could  be  found  which  did  not  have  a  bar  in  connection  with  it.  It  is 
a  question  after  all  whether  the  temperance  cause  has  made  such  great 
progress.  We  boast  that  we  have  driven  Rum  from  the  home,  from  the 
church,  from  the  college  and  from  respectable  society,  but  after  all  we  find 
the  drink  devil  cropping  up  in  every  conspicuous  place  in  almost  every  large 
city  in  this  country.  The  saloon  industry  has  secured  a  majority  of  the  best 
business  locations  in  our  cities. 

It  secures  a  business  location  in  every  first-class  hotel.  This  brings  the 
open  door  of  the  bar  room  face  to  face  with  thousands  of  young  men  who 
would  otherwise  remain  untempted. 

An  organization  known  as  The  Gideons  has  been  formed  among  com- 
mercial travelers.  It  is  made  up  of  Christian  men  who  pledge  themselves 
not  to  patronize  any  hotel  which  keeps  a  bar  in  connection  with  its  place 
of  business.  This  organization  is  destined  to  do  much  good.  In  the  state  of 
Wisconsin,  where  they  were  first  organized  and  where  they  are  the  strongest, 
they  have  forced  75  hotels  to  close  their  bars.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  they 
will  keep  up  the  same  vigilance  until  every  hotel  in  the  country  has  been 
forced  to  rid  itself  of  the  nauseating  bar. 

The  mother  of  the  Ganges  walks  out  on  the  bank  of  the  stream  and  as  a 
religious  sacrifice  throws  her  babe  into  the  open  mouth  of  the  crocodile. 
But  we,  in  this  land  of  civilization,  this  land  of  schools  and  colleges,  have  for 
a  hundred  years  been  walking  out  upon  the  banks  of  this  river  of  death  and 
throwing  our  loved  ones  into  the  open  maws  of  this  drink  devil  until  the 
haggard  jaws  of  the  beastly  thing  slobbers  with  the  blood  and  brains  of  the 
nation's  murdered  manhood  and  womanhood. 

THE  WAGES  OF  SIN  IS  DEATH 

There  are  a  few  principles  or  truths  that  should  be  studiously  inculcated 
in  the  Mfe  and  thought  of  every  American  lad.  A  male  prostitute  is  just 
as  low  and  vile  in  the  sight  of  God  as  a  female  prostitute.  In  fact,  infinitely 
lower,  because  he  sins  to  gratify  his  own  unbridled  lust,  while  she,  a  poor, 
deserted,  down-trodden  unit  of  the  human  race,  sins  for  her  daily  bread. 

Sins  to  live,  and  lives  because  she  is  afraid  to  die,  and  is  afraid  to  die, 
because  she  has  read  in  her  mother's  Bible  that  beyond  the  grave  there  is 
no  hope  for  such  as  she. 


31 

A  young  man  should  never  be  guilty  of  any  conduct  toward  any  girl,  that 
he  would  not  want  another  man  to  be  guilty  of  towards  his  own  sister. 

The  man  who  seduces  and  betrays  a  young  girl,  and  then  deserts  her  and 
sends  her  out  to  tread  the  cinder  path  of  sin,  alone,  down  to  death  and  Hell, 
without  a  ray  of  hope  in  all  the  midnight  of  her  ruined  and  blasted  life,  has 
committed  a  crime  that  is  worse  than  murder. 

The  diseases  which  come  as  a  sure  reward  to  every  man  who  keeps  the 
company  of  the  harlot,  are  many,  and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  mention  a  few 
with  some  of  the  complications  which  accompany  these  diseases.  Among  the 
more  common  are  the  the  acute  anterior  and  posterior  specific  urethritis, 
or  gonorrhoea,  chronic  urethritis,  cystitis,  membraneous  desquamative  ure- 
thritis, urethral  abcesses,  gonorrhea  of  the  rectum,  eye  and  mouth,  orchitis, 
gonorrheal  rheumatism,  affections  of  the  heart,  spinal  troubles,  skin  diseases, 
stricture,  phimosis  vegetations,  elephantiasis,  and  last,  but  by  no  means  least, 
syphilis,  the  most  terrible  and  loathsome  of  diseases,  in  some  ways  resembling 
leprosy,  changing  a  man  or  woman  into  a  dangerous  animal.  It  ruins  the 
bodies  and  lives  of  innocent  offspring  even  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 
It  affects  every  tissue,  muscles,  bones  and  internal  organs  with  the  most  aw- 
ful ulcers. 

Syphilis  is  so  loathsome  and  vile  that  the  leading  physician  of  Paris 
said  last  year.  "I  would  not  have  a  drop  or  taint  of  it  in  my  blood  for  all  the 
wealth  of  the  French  Republic." 

The  habitue  of  the  brothel  should  never  be  tolerated  in  decent  society 
or  allowed  to  marry  a  pure  and  virtuous  girl. 

That  every  house  of  shame  is  a  spreading  station  for  these  vile  diseases 
is  clearly  proven  and  any  city  whose  officials  sanction  or  tolerate  or  touch 
the  polluted  money  of  the  harlot,  is  governed  by  a  most  unscrupulous  pack 
of  political  scoundrels  whose  hands  are  red  with  the  blood  of  murdered 
innocence. 

That  these  diseases  are  prevalent  in  Springfield,  and  all  other  cities  that 
tolerate  the  brothel,  is  proven  by  the  large  number  of  physicians  who  adver- 
tise as  specialists  and  reap  a  harvest  through  the  treatment  of  both  male  and 
female  prostitutes. 

Springfield  as  it  is  today,  is  corrupt  almost  beyond  the  power  of  language 
to  describe  or  human  imagination  to  believe. 

Let  me  say  to  the  clean  and  virtuous  manhood  and  womanhood  of  Spring- 
field, that  if  I  had  the  power  to  take  you  to  some  eminence  and  lift  the  cur- 
tain and  let  you  behold  with  astonished  gaze  the  midnight  vileness  and 
iniquity  of  your  city,  you  would  stand  up  and  swear  before  God  and  high 
Heaven,  to  never  eat,  or  drink,  or  rest,  or  sleep  until  the  red  light  district 
was  in  smoking  ruins. 

Springfield  is  paying  for  its  sin  and  shame  through  the  debauching  of 
hundreds  of  its  girls  and  boys.  Let  me  say  to  you,  Mr.  Springfield  citizen, 
that  if  your  boy  is  debauched,  and  your  girl  prostituted,  you  have  no  ground 
for  complaint,  for  through  your  cowardice  and  indifference  you  are  making 
such  things  possible.  When  you  tolerate  these  iniquities  which  have  become 
so  deeply  intrenched  in  the  civic  life  of  your  city,  you  know  that  hundreds 
must  go  down  through  sin  and  shame  to  death  and  Hell,  and  if  it  is  some- 
one near  and  dear  to  you,  don't  complain,  for  it  has  been  done  by  the  ver- 
dict «f  your  own  will. 


32 

The  following  from  Pearson's  magazine  of  May,  1910,  is  so  brave  and 
strong  and  contains  so  much  vital  truth  that  we  hope  it  may  be  read  by 
every  parent  in  Springfield,  that  they  may  know  the  fruits  and  dangers  to 
their  loved  ones  that  lurk  in  a  Red   Light  District: 

"If  man  progresses  only  by  accepting  the  truth  and  molding  himself  ac- 
cording to  that  truth,  then  the  American  nation  is  rapidly  retrogressing. 

We  have  had  the  truth  ever  before  us;  it  has  tried  to  force  itself  upon 
us  in  painful  and  distressing  evidence,  but  we  keep  shutting  out  all  this 
aid  to  our  bodily  well-being  by  placing  a  screen  of  dark-green  prejudice  in 
front  of  vital  facts.  Prejudice  is  the  hysteric  daughter  of  ignorance;  ignor- 
ance is  the  bosom  friend  and  ear  whisperer  of  the  most  destructive-  enemy 
man  has  today. 

.  This  enemy  is  Venereal  disease.  Among  the  American  people — that  is, 
among  all  the  various  nationalities  in  the  United  States — venereal  disease  has 
been  allowed  to  penetrate  unchecked,  uncontrolled.  It  is  honey-combing  the 
nation.  It  has  stuck  its  slimy  head  into  innocent  families,  left  its  germs 
on  the  infant's  lips,  coiled  its  poisonous  body  around  the  public  high  school 
youth. 

Don't  shudder.  The  latter  statement  is  founded  upon  professional  ex- 
perience. 

Tuberculosis?  Typhoid  fever?  Why  mere  incidences  in  the  progress  of 
the  world. 

I  shall  not  in  this  article  deal  in  any  manner  with  statistics ;  these  have 
been  fully  given  elsewhere.  But  just  one  little  example  of  the  progress  to- 
wards a  rapidly  disintegrating  nation,  broken  homes,  childless  women  and 
helpless  and  disgusting  creeping  things  born  to  be  men,  will  enable  you  all 
to  see  the  danger  ahead. 

Take  a  group  of  one  hundred  young  men — those  from  eighteen  to  twenty- 
five  years  of  age — and  seventy-five  of  these  will  be  found  to  be  suffering 
either  from  the  effects  of  venereal  diseases  or  still  in  an  acute  stage  of  any 
of  them.     Two-thirds  of  them  will  marry. 

Think  of  it!  Five  out  of  every  ten  holy  marriages  debased  by  this  plague. 
And  we  wonder  at  the  increase  of  divorce! 

But  this  is  only  the  social  side  of  the  horrible  state  of  affairs — there  is 
the  economic.  It  is  here  that  the  future  looks  dark  for  any  nation  which 
refuses  through  its  thinking  men  and  women  to  recognize  and  control  the 
plague  that  is  upon  us,  and  rushing  the  supporters  of  families  to  hospitals, 
asylums  and  graves. 

It  is  not  so  much  the  acute  stages  of  the  diseases  that  do  the  irreparable 
injury;  it  is  the  severe  complications  and  after  effects  which  lead  to  per- 
manent bed-ridden  infirmity,  complete  inability  to  do  any  work  or  follow  any 
employment,  premature  old  age  and  the  many  nervous  disturbances  from 
paralysis  to  brain  disease,  from  rheumatism  to  alcoholism. 

All  diseases  which  interrupt  the  happiness  of  married  life,  many  of  the 
affections  which  cause  degeneracy  and  dipsomania,  drug  habits,  perversions, 
suicides  and  homicides,  have  their  genesis  in  venereal  diseases,  either  ac- 
quired or  inherited. 

When  the  bread  winner  of  the  family  becomes  in  early  life  a  burden  upon 
the  community  through  a  disease  that  can  be  controlled;  when  families 
are   broken   up    and    scatter    their   diseased    remnants    throughout   the    land 


33 

because  people  would  not  listen  to  the  truth;  when  we  are  being  taxed 
at  an  ever  increasing  rate  to  support  hospitals  and  to  build  more  institutions 
for  the  insane;  when  the  crippled  girls  and  boys,  the  blind  babies,  suffering 
and,  later  on,  mutilated  mothers,  are  still  exhibited  in  our  land,  what  in 
God's  name  is  the  use  of  calling  this  nation  a  civilized  nation? 

No  race  of  savages  would  allow  the  horrible  state  of  affairs  to  exist  that 
this  nation  of  heterogeneous  peoples  allows  daily. 

It  is  just  because  mothers,  teachers  and  ministers  would  not  listen  to 
vital  facts  in  our  social  condition  that  the  increase  in  venereal  diseases  has 
progressed  until  they  no  longer  remain  behind  the  walls  of  evil  places  or 
are  segregated  in  hospitals.  They  poke  their  poisonous  germs  into  homes, 
are  ever  ready  for  their  innocent  victims  in  public  toilets  rooms,  on  these 
nasty  contrivances  the  roll  towels,  common  drinking  cups,  public  bathing 
suits.  They  infect  the  maids  who  handle  the  soiled  linen  in  hotels  and 
boarding  houses,  lurk  around  dirty  barber  shops,  lie  in  wait  for  victims  in 
public  combs,  brushes — in  fact,  on  all  things  handled  by  the  diseased.  And 
there  are  millions  of  them  in  this  land. 

Before  going  farther  into  this  matter,  let  us  see  just  how  the  innocent 
are  made  victims  of  these  horrible  diseases. 

I  know  a  lad  who  lost  both  eyes  through  a  disease  which  he  had  innocently 
acquired.  His  mother  is  heartbroken,  the  father  almost  useless  through 
grief.  And  whose  fault  was  it?  The  parents,'  especially  the  mother's.  She 
is  one  of  those  millions  who  would  not  listen  or  talk  of  matters  that  are  the 
most  important  today  in  the  rearing  of  children. 

EVERY  DAY  GERM  CARRIERS 

A  servant  girl  was  taken  from  an  employment  office.  She,  of  course, 
used  the  family  towels.  I  say  "of  course,"  because  in  spite  of  all  care  to 
see  that  such  persons  have  their  own  linen,  they  will  use  any  they  find  lying 
around  in  chambers  and  bath  rooms. 

This  girl  was  diseased;  the  germs  of  her  disease  were  left  on  a  towel.  The 
innocent  boy  wiped  his  face  with  the  towel.  The  poisonous  germs  got  into 
his  eyes.  If  the  real  trouble  had  been  known  with  the  first  signs  of  inflam- 
mation, the  eyes  might  have  been  saved. 

"But,"  you  say,  "how  was  the  mother  to  know  about  this  condition  of 
the  servant?" 

How  does  the  mother  know  about  the  danger  of  her  boy  going  on  thin 
ice?  Why  does  she  warn  him  and  learn  herself  if  the  ice  is  safe?  Because 
these  and  similar  matters  have  been  a  part  of  her  mother's  education, 
knowledge  that  has  naturally  come  to  her  through  the  experience  of  others. 
Because  in  these  matters  she  would  listen  and  take  heed. 

But  how  could  she  know  about  this  fearful  disease  that  the  girl  brought 
into  the  house? 

If  she  had  learned,  listened  and  taken  advice  early  in  her  life — yes, 
when  she  was  a  young  woman  had  she  been  properly  warned,  she  would 
have  been  on  her  guard,  would  have  seen  things,  noticed  little  items  that 
would  have  warned  her.  She  would  have  sent  the  girl  away  immediately, 
bag  and  baggage. 

Had   she  known,  when   the  boy's  eyes  became   inflamed,  she  would  have 


at  once,  without  a  moment's  delay,  sent  for  the  doctor,  hoping  her  fears  were 
useless  but  realizing  that  such  things  were  possible. 

Mothers!  You  all  have  been  aiding  the  spread  of  these  diseases  and  their 
many  injurious  off-shoots,  by  the  shallow  idea  that  your  boy  ivas  safe,  that 
your  daughter  would  never  know  of  these  horrors. 

What  is  the  use  of  all  this  academic  and  theologic  discussion  about  the 
increase  of  divorce  when  the  barrier  which  confines  the  trouble  to  our  land 
is  kept  up  by  the  mothers  and  the  women  teachers? 

Make  laws?  Of  what  value  are  laws  unless  the  reasons  for  such  laws  are 
well  understood?  If  the  reasons  and  necessity  for  such  laws  are  thoroughly 
understood,  conditions  will  right  themselves.  It  would  not  be  absolutely 
necessary  to  have  a  physician's  certificate  if  all  women  in  this  land  knew 
why  such  were  necessary.  A  woman  well  informed  even  as  to  details  would 
be  herself  the  best  guardian  of  the  perils  of  her  family.  For  a  mother,  see- 
ing danger  threatening  her  child,  has  a  mind  fresh  and  clear  seeing,  as  swift 
and  as  logical  as  that  of  a  savage.  Knowledge  makes  for  care,  watchful- 
ness and  investigation. 

You  take  a  house  in  the  suburbs.  Before  you  do  so  you  look  carefully  into 
the  purity  of  the  water  supply;  you  investigate  any  rumors  of  typhoid  in 
the  district;  you  keep  clear  of  communities  where  saloons  and  other  places 
exist;  you  take  care  that  the  educational  facilities  are  the  best  for  mind  and 
morals.  And  why?  Because  all  these  matters  are  known  to  you  as  very 
important  for  the  well  being  of  your  little  family.  You  have  learned,  you 
have  listened.  But  to  the  more  important  matters — of  really  vital  matters 
— you  have  stopped  your  ears  and  closed  your  eyes. 

AN  EXAMPLE  OF  CRIMINAL  IGNORANCE 
Here  is  a  good  example  of  this  criminal  ignorance.  A  young  girl  was 
brought  to  me  by  a  worried  mother.  The  child  was  fourteen  years  of  age. 
From  a  good,  obedient  and  cheerful  child  she  had  merged  into  a  fretful, 
wilful  and  irritating  girl.  She  was  uneasy,  would,  or  could,  not  apply  her 
mind  to  her  simple  studies.  Then  her  mother  discovered  something.  She 
was  horrified.     What  did  it  mean? 

"Diseased,  madam;  badly  diseased.  It  is  impossible  to  say  what  the  out- 
come will  be.  She  ought  never  to  marry,  even  when  she  has  been  under  the 
best  treatment.  She  will  probably  be  childless.  That's  the  reason — at  least, 
one  of  them." 

No  need  to  describe  the  state  of  the  striken  mother. 

Did  I  speak  too  harshly?  Perhaps;  but  my  indignation  got  the  better  of 
me.     And  why? 

Because  this  very  mother  had  been  warned  by  me  a  year  before  to  keep 
her  daughter  from  running  around,  visiting  the  nickelodeons,  matinees,  going 
on  public  picnics.  She  would  not  listen;  her  child  was  "only  a  baby,"  she 
indignantly  told  me. 

"True,  madam,  I  do  not  imply  for  an  instant  that  there  is  anything  but 
innocent  play  as  yet.  But  in  reality  you  are  the  baby  in  this  case.  Keep 
your  daughter  with  you — that  is  what  I  mean.  Instruct  her  after  I  have 
instructed  you." 

Oh,  no.  She  would  not  listen ;  such  matters  did  not  concern  her.  The  girl 
remained  a  child,  was  pure  and  innocent,  yet  she  had  contracted  one  of  the 
two  horrible  diseases,  gonorrhoea. 


35 

How? 

She  went  on  a  picnic  to  one  of  the  cheap  bathing  shores.  Here  she  hired 
a  bathing  suit  that  had  just  been  used.  The  contagious  matter  left  on  this 
suit  by  the  former  user  found  a  ready  soil.  So  the  disease  progressed  until 
it  had  a  ruinous  hold  on  the  childish  body. 

WORSE   THAN  TYPHOID 

There  is  a  medical  case  known  as  "Typhoid  Mary."  This  unfortunate 
woman  sheds  typhoid  germs  wherever  she  goes.  By  the  mere  act  of  washing 
dishes  in  families  she  has  spread  a  fearful  havoc.  Over  a  score  of  her  vic- 
tims are  known.     This  typhoid  carrier  is  now  isolated. 

There  are  millions  of  individuals  going  around  among  you  who  carry 
germs  of  a  much  worse  disease. 

And  yet,  you  American  mothers  go  along  shutting  your  timid  eyes  to 
the  conditions  that  are  constantly  threatening  your  children. 

Just  as  soon  as  you  will  join  the  progressive  doctors,  after  learning  the 
real  facts,  much  of  this  danger  can  be  shut  out  of  your  homes.  A  ready 
acceptance  of  these  conditions,  earnest  talk,  forthrightness  in  acting,  will 
do  more  than  all  the  laws  men  or  women  can  devise. 

WHAT  THE  PUBLIC  MUST  KNOW 

It  is  not  the  immoral  side  of  these  conditions  nor  the  condemnation  of  the 
evil  that  I  have  anything  to  say  here,  but  only  the  simple  facts  which  all 
parents  must  face.  Through  ignorance — not  to  use  a  harsher  term — of  these 
facts  every  home  in  the  land  is  menaced. 

Of  course  the  diseases  have  their  starting  point  in  those  of  evil  habits 
and  immoral  living.  They  originally  arise  from  the  results  of  filthy  acts  and 
lives.  Smallpox,  typhoid  fever,  arise  through  ignorance  of  health  laws, 
through  filth,  through  disseminating  the  germs  where  the  innocent  can  be- 
come victims.  But  we  recognize  and  regulate  these  germ  diseases.  We  have 
laws  controlling  their  spread.  We  isolate  the  smallpox  victim;  we  vaccinate 
the  people.  We  see  to  it  that  our  water  supply  is  kept  pure  and  make  it  a 
criminal  offense  to  pollute  in  any  manner  food  or  water. 

Yet  these  are  sporadic  diseases. 

The  almost  universal  plague  which  will,  if  longer  allowed  to  spread, 
create  a  holocaust  throughout  the  nation,  is  ignored,  denied  recognition  in 
church  and  family  laws  by  the  people. 

It  is  now  in  full  activity,  its  poison  is  carrying  out  its  destructive  acts; 
its  hydra-headed  body  serpentizes  its  way  to  the  family  bed;  its  beastly  con- 
trol is  becoming  absolute. 

THE  TWO  DISEASES 

The  two  diseases  which  we  call  venereal  diseases  are  syphilis  and  gon- 
orrhoea. First  let  us  take  up  the  most  horrible  and  destructive  one — syphilis. 
Most  destructive  as  concerns  its  ultimate  effect  on  the  human  body,  brain, 
nervous  system,  tissues,  bones.  The  second,  gonorrhoea,  is  more  destructive 
to  the  home  and  family. 

One,  I  might  say,  destroys  the  body  and  those  that  come  after  this  de- 
cayed body;  the  other  disintegrates  the  unit  of  all  civilized  nations,  the 
family. 

Syphilis  is  of  course  at  first  contracted  through  direct  relations.  After 
its  first  appearance  it  penetrates  the  whole  body  until  it  pushes  its  poisonous 


36 

and  rotting  germs  to  the  surface.  It  now  appears  in  sores  on  the  skin,  ulcers 
in  the  throat,  nasty  looking  scabs  on  the  scalp.  When  this  latter  state  arrives, 
loss  of  hair  quickly  follows. 

(It  is  understood  that  I  am  trying  to  explain  in  non-medical  terms  and 
plain  words  vital  facts.  Scientific  theories  or  details  are  not  what  the 
public  needs  at  present. — W.  L.  H.) 

It  is  in  these  conditions,  confronting  even  the  innocent  babies,  that  all 
the  danger  lies.  Let  a  man  have  one  of  those  ulcers  in  his  throat;  he  kisses 
his  little  baby  brother  or,  more  horrible!  his  own  mother,  and  now  the  awful 
disease  has  been  acquired  by  the  two  innocent  loved  ones. 

Now  you  can  readily  see  that  if  an  infected  person  drink  ft  out  of  a  pub- 
lic cup,  he  or  she  may  leave,  and  almost  invariably  does  leave,  some  of  the 
germs  on  the  edges  of  the  cup.  The  next  individual  to  drink  out  of  that  cup 
may  be  an  innocent  girl. 

A  little  crack  on  the  lip — and  who  has  them  not? — or  some  slight  abra- 
sion, a  tender  tongue  is  sufficient  to  absorb  the  germs,  and  then  we  have  the 
unfortunate  one  probably  ruined  for  life.  I  say  probablv,  because  if  the 
danger  of  these  little  sores  is  not  fully  recognized  the  child  is  not  treated 
until  it  is  too  late.  "Mother  thought  it  was  a  little  cold-sore,"  a  young  girl 
told  me  as  she  lay  in  the  hospital  a  distressing  and  soul-harrowing  case. 

THEIR  DANGER  TO  INNOCENCE 

Iti  is  in  the  contemplation  of  marriage  that  syphilis  acquires  special  im- 
portance in  contra-distinction  to  gonorrhoea.  Syphilis,  in  addition  to  being 
transmissible  bv  external  infection,  is  also  communicated  through  the  medium 
of  the  germ  cells.  Now  comes  the  danger  to  the  child.  If  either  mother  or 
father  become  infected  with  syphilis — innocently  or  otherwise — the  child  is 
liable  to  be  born  with  some  objective  evidence  of  this  destructive  disease.  It 
may  be  physically  perfect,  morally  imperfect.  It  may  be  idiotic,  deformed, 
paralyzed.  It  mav  grow  to  adult  age  without  any  symptoms  of  its  inher- 
itance, but,  when  the  stress  and  storm  of  life  comes,  give  way  to  uncontroll- 
able impulses — drunkenness,  drug  habit,  useless  lying,  perversions  of  the 
moral  instincts,  mental  and  moral  instability. 

Or,  still  more  horrible,  the  child  of  such  diseased  parents  may  go  through 
life  an  upright  and  successful  man  only  to  see  his  child  born  with  all  the 
signs  of  the  grandfather's  curse  stamDed  upon  it! 

It  is  of  course  clear  that  no  syphilitic  should  marry  so  long  as  infectious 
symptoms  of  the  disease  are  present,  since  he  might  transfer  the  same  by 
direct  contact  as  well  as  by  the  common  use  of  domestic  utensils,  but  above 
all  by  the  processes  of  generation  and  conception  respectively. 

Just  as  soon  as  the  women  of  this  country  understand  these  matters 
there  will  be  fewer  marriages  of  the  syphilitics.  There  never  should  be  one 
such  criminal  act;  and  I  believe  that  every  young  woman  in  the  land,  when 
well  informed  of  the  dangers,  will  see  to  it  that  this  is  brought  about. 

Cure?  Possibly,  but  its  certainty  is  always  doubtful.  The  temporary 
absence  of  diseased  conditions  is,  however,  not  always  a  proof  of  cure,  since 
syphilis  often  presents  latent  periods  which  may  last  for  years  and  during 
which  there  are  no  outward  signs  of  the  poison  still  slumbering  in  the  body 
with  its  virulence  unimpaired. 


•     X. 


37 

AN  ILLUSTRATION 
Let  us  take  an  example.  A  young  man  contracts  syphilis.  He  goes  under 
treatment.  After  five  years  he  is  assured  that  he  is  free  from  all  the 
poison  which  once  entered  his  body.  He  marries.  Matters  go  on  smoothly; 
domestic  happiness  reigns;  he  has  forgotten,  or  rather  ceased  to  remember, 
that  virulent  poison  at  one  time  soaked  in  his  tissues.  At  about  forty-five 
years  of  age  he  finds  difficulty  in  walking.  The  trouble  increases;  he  seeks 
the  doctor. 

"Have  you  ever  had  syphilis?"  the  physician  asks.  Well,  let  us  not  dwell 
upon  the  soul  of  agony  and  horrible  revelations.  The  unfortunate  man, 
right  in  the  midst  of  his  manhood,  lands  in  the  hospital  to  remain  while  the 
locomotor  ataxia  goes  its  horrible  and  painful  course  to  the  sad  end. 

Or  it  may  be  a  similar  case,  only  the  man  demonstrates  mental  symptoms. 
He  becomes  reckless,  dissipates  his  fortune,  is  immoral,  consorts  with  vile 
companions,  drinks  constantly,  neglects  his  family — is  a  completely  changed 
individual. 

Again  the  fatal  question:     "Have  you  ever  had  syphilis?" 
"Oh,  that  was  twenty  years  ago,  Doctor.     I  was  cured." 
He  is  sent  to  an  asylum,  where  he  soon  becomes  a  helpless  thing  from 
syphilitic   germs    destroying   his    brain — general    paralysis    of    the    insane — 
paresis. 

I  do  not  mean  to  infer  that  every  case  of  locomotor  ataxia  or  paresis  is 
due  to  syphilis,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  nine-five  out  of  a  hundred  are  due 
to  this  venereal  disease — some  eminent  specialists  say  every  case. 

Another  thing  to  be  taken  into  serious  consideration:  Even  if  the  in- 
dividual has  gone  through  a  thorough  and  systematic  course  of  treatment 
by  a  scientific  physician  and  pronounced  cured,  yet  the  disease  has  probably 
left  a  weak  state  of  the  organism  which  must  be  taken  into  account  when  the 
subject  of  marriage  is  under  consideration.  The  body  is  never  as  it  was; 
the  nervous  system  becomes  debilitated,  and  under  marriage  relations  it  often 
breaks  down.  The  young  wife  has  a  husband  but  in  name.  She  is  practically 
widowed  with  a  shameful  wreck  around  her.  Divorce?  She  has  a  right  to 
it,  unless  she  married  with  her  eyes  wide  open  and  with  a  good  hearing. 

Such  a  case  of  divorce  goes  down,  like  thousands  of  others  in  the  statis- 
tics, as  one  of  "abandonment,  non-support,  incompatibality."     Tommyrot! 

(The  government  statistics  regarding  the  many  causes  for  divorce  are 
very  misleading.  The  real  causes  for  thousands  of  divorces  are  similar  to 
the  above,  and  instead  of  the  real  causes  given  to  the  gatherers  of  statistics, 
we  get  the  indirect  causes.  "Cruelty"  is  certainly  correct  in  all  these  cases, 
but  from  a  sociologic  and  scientific  point,  and  as  enabling  us  to  get  at  the 
real  reasons,  these  maladroit  euphemisms  are  very  misleading.) 

Here  is  an  example  of  one  of  the  indirect  ways  through  which  syphilis 
can  work  ruin,  disintegrate  families,  cause  divorce.  A  young  married  couple 
had  one  child,  a  baby  seven  months  old.  Its  nurse  was  a  cream-colored  girl. 
Mother,  child  and  nurse  went  to  a  summer  resort,  the  husband  coming  up 
on  Saturdays.  The  child  becoming  ill,  sores  breaking  out  on  its  tiny  lips, 
the  hotel  physician  advised  their  return  home.  In  a  few  weeks  the  husband 
became  ill,  bad  chills,  and  painful  ulcers  appeared  upon  his  throat.  He  went 
to  his  doctor,  who  had  known  him  for  years.  This  physician  was  astonished. 
There  was  no  mistaking  the  ulcers;  they  were  syphilitic.     But  he  kept  silent, 


38 

while  treating  and  cautioning  the  man.     He  must  leave  home — go  to  some  ■ 
baths.     You  see  the  doctor  knew  the  danger  of  allowing  the  man  around  his 
wife  and  baby. 

Unfortunately  the  wife  had  her  physician  for  self  and  baby.  They  had 
to  go  to  him.  He  was  not  so  wise  nor  so  prudent  as  her  husband's  physi- 
cian. His  astonishment  and  questions  brought  anxious  questions  from  the 
wife.     The  horrible  facts  all  came  out. 

"You  have  the  'bad  disease,'  Mrs. ." 

How  did  it  all  come  about?  Difficult  to  be  exact  in  explaining  the  de- 
tails of  the  cause.  The  baby  contracted  syphilis.  It  went  to  its  worst  stage 
untreated,  unrecognized,  until  too  late. 

You  see  the  poor  mother  didn't  know;  she  had  been  kept  in  total  ignorance 
of  these  vital  facts  concerning  venereal  diseases. 

Had  she  known — well,  it  would  have  been  possible  to  prevent  this  family's 
dissolution.  At  least,  neither  father  nor  mother  would  have  contracted  the 
disease  from  the  child.  It  would  have  been  isolated,  treated,  never  kissed 
while  the  disease  was  in  evidence,  while  the  sores  lasted. 

This  little  babe  was  cared  for  by  one  who  had  upon  her  person  the  germs 
of  syphilis.  It  may  be  possible  that  the  infant  contracted  the  disease  through 
drinking  from  some  utensil  upon  which  were  the  germs  of  syphilis.  But  to 
one  who  knows  the  true  conditions  it  looks  the  other  way. 

This  case  demonstrates  a  fact  which  I  cannot  too  often  state,  a  fact  that 
every  man,  woman  and  child  should  know — that  the  disease  syphilis  fre- 
quently remains  unrecognized  a  long  time  and  therefore  untreated;  and  the 
fact  that  the  necessary  precautionary  measures  are  in  consequence  omitted 
renders  the  patient  a  focus  of  infection  of  the  worst  kind,  so  that  the  occur- 
rance  of  the  awful  disease  among  several  members  of  a  family  and  in  board- 
ing houses,  is  by  no  means  unknown. 

GONORRHOEA  AND  ITS  MANY  MANIFESTATIONS. 

For  many  decades  gonorrhoea  was  considered  merely  a  local  disease. 
Like  syphilis  its  initial  cause  is  in  immoral  acts.  It  is  primarily  acquired  by 
contact.  It  is  a  fearfully  contagious,  disease.  It  only  appears  in  its  direct 
stage  as  an  inflammation  which  pours  out  a  virulent  poison.  It  is  this 
poisonous  matter  which  when  deposited  or  left  on  towels,  linen,  toilets,  in 
fact,  on  anything  it  comes  in  contact  with,  works  its  fearful  havoc.  It  does 
not  kill  or  rot  the  body  like  syphilis,  but  it  maims,  tortures  indefinitely,  both 
the  innocent  and  guilty  alike.  It  is  far  more  the  cause  of  family  disintegra- 
tion than  syphilis,  for  it  is  hideous  in  its  ramifications,  in  its  unknown  laws 
of  reappearance,  in  the  vitality  of  its  germs. 

These  germs  may  lie  dormant  and  inactive  for  years.  In  this  fact  lies 
its  danger.  It  never  shows  itself  by  sores  on  body  or  tissues;  it  is  purely 
local.  It  does  not  threaten  the  health  and  lives  of  the  public  through  drink- 
ing cups,  hair  brushes,  etc.  But  anything  that  has  come  in  contact  with  the 
diseased  parts  is  more  to  be  feared  that  the  fangs  of  a  viper. 

The  public  has  been  told  so  many  facts,  so  many  important  truths  re- 
garding the  blindness  caused  by  this  disease,  that  I  merely  mention  it.  Per- 
haps one-third  of  blindness  is  caused  by  this  disease.  But  here  is  what  the 
public  should  know:  It  is  never  certain  when  a  cure  has  been  effected  in 
gonorrhoea.    As  far  as  the  individual  who  has  become  infected  is  concerned, 


39 

"cures"  are  practically  made.  That  is,  the  patient  can  discover  no  sign  of 
the  vile  germs  remaining.  The  best  physicians,  however,  can  never  be  ab- 
solutely certain  that  the  germs  do  not  remain  latent  and  quiescent  in  the 
body.  Only  those  human,  social  vampires,  the  quacks,  make  a  statement  of 
"a  certain  cure." 

This  uncertainty  of  a  cure  can  best  be  demonstrated  by  citing  examples. 

A  young  man  of  twenty-five  years  marries  a  pure,  innocent  girl— I  hope 
there  will  be  no  ignorant  girls  or  mothers  by  the  time  I  finish  my  plain  talk. 
Five  years  prior  to  this  young  man's  marriage  he  contracted  gonorrhea.  He 
has  been  careful  since;  been  under  the  best  physicians  and  carried  out  all 
instructions.  His  severe  lesson  made  him  a  good  man.  His  physician  thought 
it  safe  for  him  to  marry,  although  like  all  conscientious  doctors  he  warned 
him  that  he  ran  some  risk — or,  rather  the  pure  girl  will  run  the  risk. 

For  a  few  months  all  runs  well.  Finally  the  little  wife  had  a  miscar- 
riage. Nothing  unusual  in  the  present  method  of  training  our  girls.  She 
takes  a  long  time  in  recovering  from  an  illness.  After  a  while  another  ac- 
cident of  the  same  kind  happens.  Now  she  becomes  an  invalid  for  some  time. 
It  dawns  upon  her  worried  thoughts  that  she  is  to  be  childless.  She  remains 
a  semi-invalid ;  her  husband  at  times  blames  her,  he  mutters  innuendos  which 
painfully  pierce  her  aching  heart. 

Soon  peace  and  patience  leave  the  home.  The  suffering  young  wife  grows 
worse  and  finally  there  is  only  one  resort.  The  doctors  have  told  here  that 
she  must  have  an  operation  to  save  her  from  longer  suffering. 

In  the  hospital  the  knife  reveals  the  suspected  cause. 

Gonorrhoeal  infection!  The  internal  organs  of  reproduction  have  been 
the  seat  of  an  inflamation  that  has  destroyed  their  usefulness.  They  had  to 
come  out.  Poor,  poor  girl!  You  see,  she  didn't  know.  These  things  were 
never  told  her — neither  did  the  husband  really  know. 

Another  tragedy — broken   home,   disgrace,   an   unsexed   thing. 

And  after?  Well,  often  the  asylum,  frequently  recklessness  and  dissipa- 
tion— or  the  river.     You  read  of  the  ends  almost  daily. 

Now  comes  another  case,  exactly  like  the  above  in  all  but  its  final  out- 
come. Instead  of  physical  symptoms  and  illness  the  young  wife  becomes 
hysterical,  morbid,  cross.  All  the  physic  volcanoes  which  lie  hidden  in  every 
soul  are  in  a  state  of  constant  eruption.  This  wife  has  a  child,  but  she  hates 
it,  it  annoys  her;  so  does  her  husband.  Finally  she  has  a  horror  of  his  pres- 
ence. Now  fix  this  in  your  mind — she  is  as  absolutely  ignorant  of  the  real 
cause  of  her  condition  as  is  her  husband.     Nobody  knows  at  this  time. 

Her  increasing  irritability  makes  her  presence  disagreeable  to  all  ai-ound 
her.  Morbid  introspection  soon  gives  way  to  melancholia.  Then  one  of  two 
things  happens;  she  either  takes  to  stimulants  or  drugs,  or  she  becomes  a 
fixed  neurasthenic  and  ultimately  lands  in  the  hospital  for  the  mentally  ill. 

What  is  the  cause  of  all  these  psychic  disturbances? 

The  germs  of  gonorrhoea  with  which  she  became  infected  through  her 
"cured"  husband,  instead  of  finding  lodgment  in  any  particular  organ  or 
organs,  have  penetrated  the  nervous  system,  have  affected  the  brain. 

In  another  case,  all  may  go  well  with  the  wife.  She  remains  perfectly 
well,  has  not  apparently  become  infected;  but  those  serpent-wise  germs  will 
not  let  go  their  coiling  grasp  on  the  husband. 


40 

Ten  or  more  years  have  passed  in  quiet  domestic  life,  when  the  husband 
is  stricken  with  acute  inflammatory  rheumatism.  Now  the  family  provider 
becomes  useless.  Crippled,  he  is  pushed  around  by  an  attendant — helpless, 
groaning  with  pain,  a  heavy  burden  upon  the  wife  and  friends. 

And  so  I  might  continue. 

Now  remember  that  all  these  cases  that  I  have  shown  to  you  belong  to 
the  wealthy  class.  They  had  the  best  of  advice,  treatment,  and  all  that  money 
and  science  could  procure.  But  the  sins  or  errors  of  youth — due  in  most 
part  to  ignorance  of  the  peril — still  remain  to  strike  at  the  most  favorable 
opportunity  to  bring  misery  and  disgrace. 

Now,  if  these  are  the  conditions  which  exist  through  the  curse  of  gonor- 
rhoeal  infection  in  the  wealthy,  it  is  readily  seen  what  the  effects  are  upon 
the  economics  of  any  nation  where  the  working  classes  are  affected. 

When  the  husband  is  made  useless  as  a  wage-earner,  what  is  the  result? 
The  wife  must  earn  for  all.  Plucky  is  she  who  in  all  the  bloom  of  youth  and 
beauty,  disgusted,  and  perhaps  hating  the  man  who  has  brought  her  down 
to  care  for  home  and  his  diseased  body,  does  not  accept  "the  easiest  way." 

But  they  don't — that  is,  not  many  of  them.  Such  women  deserve  more 
credit  and  man's  aid  than  they  have  ever  received.  They  are  martyrs;  they 
don't  complain  or  run  to  the  divorce  courts;  they  just  keep  on  caring  for 
the  little  ones.  With  the  ever  disgusting  thing  around  them,  they  rise  and 
struggle  for  him  and  these  helpless  ones  around  her. 

But  there  is  an  end  to  all  this  struggle.  It  is  in  the  hospital  for  a  true 
illness,  and  the  free  ward  for  venereal  diseases  for  the  husband,  while  the 
children  must  depend  upon  charity  for  assistance. 

And  this  need  for  charity  will  increase  as  long  as  we  remain  a  nation  of 
hypocrites  and  truth  deniers. 

To  get  at  once  out  of  this  uncivilized  state  we  must  start  at  the  bottom. 
Instruction  is  needed  by  all  classes,  but  especially  by  the  youths  and  maids  of 
of  the  land. 

During  the  next  five  years  there  will  be  thousands  of  one-time  strong, 
healthy  women  in  our  hospitals,  living  on  charity,  walking  the  streets.  These 
will  have  given  birth  to  more  thousands  of  diseased  children — cripples,  moral 
imbeciles,  juvenile  criminals — as  they  grow  up  neglected  and  the  vitiated 
blood  controls  their  impulses. 

These  thousands  of  women  and  future  mothers  are  now  in  Europe. 

But  how  do  all  these  diseased  women  get  into  the  country? 

They  don't  come  here  diseased;  they  are  pure,  innocent  wives,  cr  wives 
to  be,  when  they  arrive  here. 

From  southwestern  Europe  there  are  arriving  almost  daily  a  very  large 
number  of  young  men  immigrants.  They  have  either  left  their  wives  to  re- 
main until  they  can  be  sent  for,  or  they  have  left  some  young  girls,  promising 
to  send  for  them  and  make  them  their  wives  as  soon  as  the  money  is  saved 
for  the  passages. 

These  men  remain  in  our  cities  two  or  three  years  before  sending  for 
these  women  at  home.  These  women  reach  their  husbands  or  sweethearts 
in  full  and  vigorous  health.  But  this  good  health  does  not  last  long  after  the 
continuance  of  the  marriage  relations.  The  women  become  infected  by  their 
husbands,  who  have  contracted  a  disease  in  this  free  land — free  for  the 
universal  liberty  and  license  of  venereal  disease,  but  not  free  for  the  spread- 


41 

ing  of  knowledge  of  this  plague  by  allowing  its  clangers  to  be  taught  to  our 
youths  and  girls — yes,  even  to  our  mothers — or  any  legal  control  of  ita 
progress,  any  supervision  of  those  who  are  the  foci  of  the  nurse. 

In  the  instruction  of  our  young  citizens  upon  matters  of  vital  importance 
to  their  health  and  happiness,  our  public  schools  are  miserable  failures.  They 
are  more  than  this;  they  are  a  menace  to  the  welfare  of  our  nation. 

We  must  have  at  once  separate  schools  for  the  sexes  after  they  pass  the 
primary  schools.  Let  there  be  manly  and  womanly  instruction  in  all  these 
important  subjects.  Shove  false  prudery  into  the  garbage  cans;  throw  out 
all  teachers  who  will  not  recognize  the  important  sex  differentiation  at  the 
volcanic  age  of  adolescence,  and  who  are  not  cognizant  of  the  curse  of  un- 
controlled and  uninformed  impulses. 

And  what  are  we,  those  who  should  help,  doing  to  stop  this  curse  of  our 
nation?     I  mean  we — the  people,  the  government. 

Nothing,  absolutely  nothing,  except  to  furnish  dollars  for  treatment  but 
not  a  word  or  dollar  to  instruct  the  coming  generation. 

SOME  PLAIN  EARNEST  WORDS  TO  THE  BOYS  AND 
YOUNG  MEN  OF  SPRINGFIELD 

I  want  to  conclude  this  book  with  a  few  plain  words  addressed  directly  to 
boys  and  young  men.  The  boys  of  today  are  the  voters,  citizens  and  home 
builders  of  tomorrow.  The  success  of  this  nation  depends  on  the  character  of 
its  manhood.  The  strength  and  greatness  of  a  nation  does  not  depend  so 
much  on  the  extent  of  its  domain,  the  fertility  of  its  soil,  the  richness  of  its 
banks,  the  extent  of  its  commerce,  as  it  does  on  the  character  of  its  manhood. 
Greece  defied  the  world  because  of  the  Spartan  spirit  of  its  unsullied  man- 
hood. Virtue  is  life,  vice  is  death,  to  nation  or  individual.  "The  wages  of 
sin  is  death,"  is  a  truism  from  sacred  writ  that  applies  to  nations  just  the 
same  as  to  individuals.  This  great  nation  that  we  love  and  honor,  and  for 
which  we  would  gladly  give  our  lives  on  the  field  of  battle,  faces  no  danger 
whatever  from  external  foe.  Its  foes  are  internal.  They  are  the  deadliest 
foes  that  ever  assailed  a  nation,  for  they  strike  at  its  very  heart  by  secretly, 
treacherously,  persistently  and  insidiously  assailing  its  manhood.  This  is  our 
country's  danger,  its  manhood  gone,  the  foundation  of  its  greatness  has  been 
destroyed.     These  enemies  are: 

1.  The  Saloon. 

2.  The  Brothel. 

3.  The  Gambling  Den. 

4.  Secret  Vice. 

5.  Political  Romanism. 

6.  The  Tobacco  Habit. 

There  are  other  evils,  but  they  are  kindred  to  the  ones  mentioned.  Most 
of  these  evils  are  peculiar  in  their  efforts  to  capture,  debauch  and  enslave 
the  young  manhood  of  the  nation.  To  accomplish  this  end  vast  and  elaborate 
plans  are  carried  out.  Millions  are  spent  to  make  the  saloon  and  brothel 
attractive  and  the  gambling  hells  enticing.  Other  agencies  are  employed, 
beer  gardens,  dance  halls,  arcades  where  vulgar  pictures  are  featured,  shod- 
dy, vulgar  shows,  billiard  halls,  cigar  stores  and  Sunday  excursions.  The 
trend  of  it  all  is  toward  Hell  and  away  from  all  that  strengthens  character 


42 

and  builds  manhood.  Out  of  these  institutions  comes  the  rottenness  that 
corrupts  politics,  gangrenes  the  state  and  threatens  the  utter  destruction  of 
our  free  institutions. 

On  the  other  side,  pitted  against  these  minions  of  darkness  and  defying 
the  very  imps  of  Hell,  is  the  Church  of  God  with  all  its  mightly  auxiliary 
institutions,  that  have  sworn  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  as  king  the  saloon 
must  die.  Young  men,  in  this,  the  most  heroic  fight  of  the  centuries  to  save 
a  nation's  life  and  a  nation's  manhood,  where  are  you  going  to  take  your 
stand?  Will  it  be  as  a  craven  slave  of  sin  in  the  devil's  army  or  will  you  be  an 
errant  knight,  wearing  the  armor  of  truth  and  righteousness,  beneath  a  stain- 
less flag,  winning  victories  for  an  ever  living  King? 

We  must  have  and  will  have  on  our  side  the  boys  of  the  nation.  You  are 
a  mighty  power,  young  men,  and  as  you  come  to  realize  that  power  you  must 
feel  its  responsibility.  You  must  fight  for  the  redemption  of  your  city  and, 
eventually,  for  the  redemption  of  the  state  and  nation. 

The  author  hopes  that  this  book  will  be  of  great  value  to  young  men. 
Young  men  have  been  looked  upon  as  a  care,  as  wards  in  the  realm  of  busi- 
ness activity  and  progressive  civilization.  The  world  is  slow  to  learn,  and 
when  taught  is  quick  to  forget,  that  young  men  are  strong  in  muscles,  mind 
and  character,  and  that  they,  more  than  any  others,  are  capable  of  carrying 
on  the  world's  work.  Men  are  the  highest  expression  of  the  Infinite  mind, 
and  the  best  kind  of  man  is  a  young  man. 

"Arouse  him  then;  this  is  thy  part; 

Show  him  the  claim;  point  out  the  need. 
And  nerve  his  arm  and  cheer  his  heart. 

Then  stand  aside,  and  say:  "God-speed." 

Young  men  can  do  wonders.  The  great  Chinese  wall  is  the  unrivaled 
wonder  of  the  world's  history.  It  is  1,259  miles  long,  20  feet  high,  25  feet 
thick,  and  contains  20,000  towers  40  feet  square  at  the  base  and  37  feet  high. 
It  took  hundreds  of  years  to  build  it  and  it  is  the  most  stupendous  structure 
erected  by  man.  If  laid  down  in  the  United  States  it  would  reach  from 
Niagara  Falls  to  Dallas,  Texas,  from  New  Orleans  to  New  York.  It  would 
wall  our  Atlantic  seaboard  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Florida;  yet  with  the  aid  of 
modern  machinery,  the  Young  Men  of  America  represent  enough  force  to  dig 
the  clay  from  the  earth,  manufacture  the  bricks  and  construct  the  wall  com- 
plete in  five  days.  We  want  this  marvelous  energy  of  young  manhood  conse- 
crated and  concentrated  along  moral  lines  until  we  accomplish  the  moral  re- 
demption of  America. 

According  to  the  census  of  1900  the  toal  population  of  the  U.  S.  was 
72,622,250,  and  of  this  number  42,067,880  were  males.  Almost  exactly  one- 
third  of  this  number,  or  14,689,293,  were  young  men  between  the  ages  of 
fourteen  and  twenty-eight.  According  to  estimates  furnished  by  the  Gover- 
nors of  the  various  states  on  January  1st,  1906,  to  the  New  York  World  the 
present  population  of  our  nation  is  81,197,652.  Continuing  the  same  ratio 
regarding  sex  and  age  that  prevailed  in  1900,  would  give  a  male  population 
of  at  least  46,000,000.  There  are  at  the  present  time  in  the  United  States 
15,000,000  young  men  beween  fourteen  and  twenty-eight.  All  the  future  hope 
of  the  American  republic  is  wrapped  up  in  these  15,000,000  young  men  and 


43 

boys.     Can   we   realize   the   tremendous   responsibility   that   rests   upon   the 
church  in  its  efforts  to  win  the  boys? 

The  now  famous  painting  "Breaking  Home  Ties"  by  the  lamented  Thomas 
Havenden,  which  won  the  first  prize  at  the  Chicago  World's  Fair,  represents 
an  American  boy  leaving  home  to  battle  for  himself.  More  than  a  thousand 
boys  like  this  one  go  out  from  their  homes  every  day  to  make  homes  for 
themselves,  to  create  new  conditions,  to  acquire  property,  to  marry  well  and 
establish  other  families,  to  become  good  citizens  and  valued  members  of  new 
communities,  to  develop  that  estate  of  American  manhood  which  is  the 
strength  of  the  strongest  of  nations. 

Millions  of  young  men  are  without  home,  or  they  drift  from  place  to 
place,  from  job  to  job,  until,  divorced  from  the  natural  affection  and  settled 
motives  in  life,  they  form  a  national  peril  rather  than  a  tower  of  strength 
and  protection.  Never  in  the  history  of  our  nation  were  vice  and  immorality 
so  powerfully  and  systematically  organized  as  they  are  today.  There  are 
few  epithets  more  stigmatizing  than  to  say  that  a  young  fellow  "has  gone 
like  most  young  men."  It  means  that  he  has  gone  to  the  bad.  To  gain  the 
reputation  of  being  "one  of  the  boys"  is  little  short  of  ill  repute.  It  is  a 
sad  fact  that  the  experience  of  most  of  our  boys  and  young  men  from  their 
earliest  career  as  such,  is  little  else  than  a  panorama  of  vice  and  wickedness. 
Young  men  are  not  taking  the  interest  they  should  in  moral  and  re- 
ligious problems.  We  give  a  few  quotations  from  that  excellent  little  work, 
"Dying  at  the  Top,"  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Clokey : 

"The  National  Committee  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  has  sent  out  a  printed  state- 
ment in  which  I  find  that  but  five  per  cent  of  the  young  men  throughout  the 
land  are  members  of  churches ;  that  only  fifteen  out  of  every  one  hundred  at- 
tend religious  services  with  any  regularity,  and  that  seventy-five  out  of  one 
hundred  never  attend  church  at  all." 

"A  city  of  17,000  population,  3,000  young  men;  1,021,  over  one-fourth, 
entered  forty -nine  saloons  in  one  hour  on  a  Saturday  night." 

"In  Leadville,  Col.,  on  a  certain  Sabbath  evening,  250  young  men  attended 
the  eight  Protestant  and  Catholic  churches;  the  same  evening  2,000  of  the 
5,000  young  men  entered  six  of  the  seventy-six  saloons***  Mr.  Meigs,  of 
Indianapolis,  Ind.,  delivered  a  lecture  some  time  since  in  Terre  Haute.  Before 
his  visit  he  had  seven  young  men  take  notes  for  him  in  that  city.  The  re- 
sult was  that,  on  a  certain  Saturday  evening,  these  young  men  found  1,045 
young  men  enter  seven  of  the  150  saloons;  and  on  the  following  Sabbath 
morning  only  seventy-five  young  men  in  all  of  the  churches." 

The  following  is  from  the  report  of  the  secretary  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  of 
San  Francisco  for  1899: 

"On  Sunday  evening,  August  19,  1898,  there  were,  by  actual  count,  in 
all  the  Evangelical  churches,  1,892  young  men  between  sixteen  and  thirty- 
five  years  of  age.  On  the  following  Sunday  evening,  August  26,  the  principal 
theaters,  concert  and  billiard  halls,  and  other  places  of  amusement,  includ- 
ing saloons,  etc.,  were  counted  (one  baseball  match  at  which  were  5,000 
young  men,)  and  there  were  found  in  these  places  of  amusement  and  saloons, 
including  the  baseball  match  on  the  afternoon  of  that  day,  17,933  young  men. 
And  there  were  at  least  3,000  places  of  unhallowed  influences,  which  could 


44 

not  be  reached  and  counted  by  our  committee  that  evening,  where  young  men 
were  congregated.  Putting  it  at  the  very  lowest  estimate,  we  would  say,  that, 
on  that  evening,  there  were  on  an  average  five  young  men  visited  each  of 
these  places,  which  gives  us  a  total  of  15,000.  By  these  figures  we  find  that 
there  were  at  the  least  calculation  32,933  young  men  in  the  theaters,  drink- 
ing saloons,  and  other  places  of  amusement  on  that  Sunday  evening.  This 
report  is  signed  by  ten  young  men  representing  different  denominations.  The 
largest  number  of  young  men  found  in  any  one  church,  was  411;  the  least 
six.  The  largest  number  found  in  any  one  theater  was  1,200,  and  there  were 
three  places  where  there  were  over  1,000." 

Again  Dr.  Clokey  says:  "Our  own  sons  are  the  Tartars  of  today  and  the 
walls  that  incarcerate  them,  would,  if  placed  end  to  end,  in  a  continuous  line, 
rival  in  length  China's  1,500  mile  wonder.  In  round  numbers  seventy  per 
cent  of  the  convicts  in  our  penitentiaries  are  young  men." 

The  saloon  must  have  boys  or  it  must  close  up.  It  can  no  more  run  with- 
out boys  than  the  saw  mill  without  logs.  Two  million  boys  is  what  these 
engines  of  hell  destroy  during  every  generation.  One  family  out  of  every  ten 
must  contribute  a  boy.  Do  you  vote  to  keep  the  saloon  running,  grinding  up 
boys,  and  contribute  none  of  your  own  to  keep  up  the  supply?  You  don't 
want  your  boy  ruined?  Then  do  not  give  your  influence  or  your  vote  to  keep 
this  youth  destroying  machinery  running. 

However  in  regard  to  young  men  we  are  not  justified  in  drawing  too 
dark  a  picture.  "There  is  a  silver  lining  to  every  cloud."  In  every  com- 
munity may  be  found  young  men  who  are  noble  in  heart  and  pure  in  charac- 
ter. Let  us  urge  upon  young  men  the  necessity  of  becoming  Christians  early 
in  life.  Nearly  all  who  become  useful  Christians  do  so  early  in  life.  A  man 
is  seldom  converted  after  twenty-eight;  not  one  in  ten  between  thirty  and 
forty;  not  one  in  sixty  between  forty  and  fifty,  and  not  one  in  three  hundred 
between  fifty  and  sixty.  More  than  75  per  cent  of  those  who  are  Christians 
were  converted  before  the  age  of  twenty-one.  The  spirit  which  inclines  the 
minds  and  hearts  of  men  toward  God  and  a  religious  life  rapidly  declines  in 
influence  after  the  age  of  manhood  is  reached.  The  old  may  be  saved,  but 
salvation  is  especially  in  behalf  of  the  young.  The  Bible  contains  scarcely 
a  direct  promise  to  an  aged  and  unconverted  man,  but  it  is  full  of  promise  to 
young  men.  To  a  remarkable  degree  it  is  a  book  about  young  men  and  for 
young  men.  Its  kings,  its  prophets,  its  apostles,  and  its  heroes  were  chiefly 
young  men.  Jesus  Christ  was  a  young  man.  He  experienced  the  trials  and 
vicissitudes  of  life,  and  was  tempted  of  the  devil  as  young  men  only  exper- 
ience these  things.  He  learned  a  trade,  waxed  strong  in  muscle  and  mind, 
won  his  own  reputation  among  men;  came  in  contact  with  the  world,  saw 
its  iniquity  and  deception,  its  hypocrisy  and  treason  in  high  places  as  young 
men  see  these  things  today.  Through  it  all  he  lived  a  pure  and  blameless 
life.  He  had  no  experience  with  age,  but  finished  his  work  while  the  glow 
of  youthful  vigor  was  upon  his  cheeks.  His  life  is  pre-eminently  a  pattern 
for  young  men.  Nowhere  is  Christian  character  so  attractive  and  powerful 
as  when  exemplified  in  the  lives  of  young  men.  To  none  does  it  prove  so 
great  a  blessing,  and  to  none  does  it  give  so  potent  an  influence  for  useful- 
ness. Life's  battles  must  be  fought,  temptations  overcome,  evils  conquered, 
obstacles  put  aside  and  enemies  overthrown,  while  men  are  young. 


45 

It  is  a  fatal  delusion  for  young  men  to  conclude  that  the  world  owes  them 
a  living  and  that  somehow  in  some  way  it  will  come  to  them  without  its 
equivalent  in  work  which  brings  into  action  their  brightest  faculties  and  best 
energies.  Young  men  must  learn  that  the  great  victories  come  early  in  life 
or  they  do  not  come  at  all.     Young  men  must  be  useful. 

George  Washington  was  busily  engaged  in  surveying  the  wilds  of  Vir- 
ginia at  eighteen. 

LaFayette,  the  great  French  patriot,  was  but  twenty-one  when  he  fought 
the  battle  of  Monmouth. 

Alexander  the  Great  ascended  the  throne  of  Macedon  as  king  at  twenty. 
Hannibal  completed  the  subjugation  of  Spain  while  in  his  twenties. 
Charles  V  was  crowned  emporer  of  Germany  at  twenty. 

Louis  XIV  made  his  court  the  center  of  art,  literature  and  science  before 
he  was  twenty-one. 

David  Farragut,  the  noted  American  admiral  was  a  lieutenant  at  twenty- 
one. 

Demosthenes  was  the  greatest  orator  of  Greece,  and  Cicero  of  Rome, 
while  yet  in  their  twenties. 

William  Wilberforce,  England's  champion  of  freedom,  began  his  anti-slav- 
ery efforts  before  he  was  sixteen. 

William  E.  Gladstone,  the  "Grand  Old  Man"  of  England  was  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Commons  at  twenty-three. 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  at 
twenty-six. 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  Washington's  aid-de-camp  at  the  age  of  twenty. 

William  Pitt  was  Prime  Minister  at  twenty-four,  and  practically  the  ruler 
of  England  at  twenty-five. 

Lord  Bacon  was  appointed  Consul  to  the  Queen  at  twenty-eight. 

Plato  devoted  his  life  to  the  study  of  phliosophy  at  twenty. 

Sir  Isaac  Newton  was  twenty-three  when  he  saw  the  fall  of  the  apple 
which  resulted  in  the  discovery  of  gravitation. 

Benjamin  Franklin,  the  philosopher  and  statesman,  began  to  write  for 
publication  when  a  boy  of  fourteen. 

Pascal,  the  French  philosopher,  solved  various  geometrical  problems  up- 
on the  floor  of  his  mother's  kitchen  with  a  piece  of  charcoal  before  he  was 
eight  years  of  age. 

Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  discoverer  of  the  chemical  elements,  made  his  first 
experiment  in  chemistry  at  nineteen. 

Michael  Faraday  became  the  greatest  experimental  philosopher  the  world 
has  produced  at  twenty-two. 

Galileo  was  only  eighteen  when  he  stood  in  the  cathedral  of  Pisa  and  no- 
ticed how  regularly  the  great  hanging  lamp  swung  to  and  fro,  and  by  com- 
paring it  with  the  beat  of  his  pulse  he  decided  the  accuracy  of  the  time  in  its 
movements,  from  which  he  became  the  inventor  of  the  clock  pendulum. 

Lord  Henry  Brogham,  the  British  statesman,  orator  and  scientist,  was  a 
brilliant  scholar  while  yet  in  his  teens. 


-«■».'» mm  •  •"  »  ».«« 


M 

Humboldt,  to  whom  physical  seience  is  more  indebted  than  any  man  of 
modern  times,  published  his  first  volume  at  twenty-one. 

John  J.  Audubon,  the  world's  greatest  ornithologist,  began  the  study  of 
birds  when  a  youth;  he  was  born  in  Louisiana  and  was  studying  painting  in 
Paris  at  fourteen. 

Sir  William  Rowan  Hamilton  had  thoroughly  mastered  all  the  branches 
of  the  ordinary  university  course  and  was  making  original  investigations 
in  mathematics,  philosophy  and  metaphysics  at  fifteen. 

Dr  Thomas  Young  had  learned  French  and  Latin  without  a  teacher  and 
had  made  considerable  progress  in  Arabic,  Persic  and  Hebrew  at  fourteen. 

McCormick  had  conceived  in  his  own  mind,  and  constructed  with  his  own 
hands,  a  harvesting  reaper  before  he  was  twenty-two. 

Elias  Howe  gave  to  the  world  one  of  its  greatest  civilizing  agents,  the 
sewing  machine,  when  he  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-six. 

Eli  Whitney,  while  yet  in  his  twenties,  invented  the  cotton-gin  which  dou- 
bled the  wealth  of  the  southern  states. 

Thomas  A.  Edison,  while  a  young  man,  kept  the  path  to  the  Patent  Office 
hot  with  his  foot  steps. 

Robert  Fulton  was  in  Europe  studying  art  and  earning  his  own  way  at 
twenty-one. 

Samuel  Colt  invented  the  revolver  which  bears  his  name  at  twenty-one. 
James  Watt,  at  twenty-one,  was  appointed  mathematical  instrument  maker 
at  the  University  of  Glasgow. 

Edward  Gibbon,  the  most  brilliant  recorder  of  events  the  world  has  pro- 
duced, began  his  studies,  which  resulted  in  his  unrivaled  historical  works, 
at  the  age  of  seventeen. 

These  illustrations  of  the  courage  and  heroism  of  young  men  could  be  car- 
ried on  indefinitely.  The  few  cases  have  been  cited  to  show  what  has  been 
done  by  Joung  men  in  the  past.  These  same  victories  can  be  won  by  men 
todav  It  only  requires  grit,  courage  and  determination.  An  education  is 
worth  the  cos?  no^ifference  what  the  cost  may  be  Burn  the  midmgh .oil 
if  necessary.  Pick  up  a  little  fragment  of  learning  here  and  there  whenever 
the  opportunity  offers.  If  you  are  totally  illiterate  you  can  commence  with 
the  smallest  words  and  master  just  one  word  per  day,  gradua lly  taking  up  the 
more  difficult  ones  and  in  three  years  you  can  be  a  master  of  the  English 
£neuaff™  Keep  eternally  at  it.  Do  not  waste  your  evenings, in  saloons  or 
bUlSrd  halls'.  Do  not  read  trashy  literature,  time  is  too  precious,  but  read 
each  year  a  collection  of  the  best  books  of  the  age,  biography,  history  poetry, 
sdence  etc  Buy  the  books  and  own  them  if  possible;  if  not,  take  advantage 
lithe ^  Public  Library.  Do  not  droop;  stand  erect  with  head  up  and  be  a 
learner  by  observation. 

And  let  me  say  a  word  to  parents.  You  should  encourage  and  assist  your 
children  in  their  efforts  to  acquire  an  education  even  if  you  make  serious  sac- 
rifices to  do  it  Keep  in  the  confidence  of  your  children  Make  companions 
of  them  and  they  will  look  to  you  for  advice  and  counsel.  And  when  home 
ties  are  broken  and  the  boy  goes  out  into  the  world,  keep  in  touch  with  him 
sSll  There  Ts  both  truth  and  tragedy  in  the  following  beautiful  lines  by 
Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox: 


47 


INTO  THE  WORLD 

Out  over  childhood's  borders 
Manhood's  brave  banners  unfurled, 
Weighed  down  with  precepts  and  orders, 
A  boy  has  gone  into  the  world. 

Nobody  thinks  it  pathetic, 
For  he  is  a  strong-armed  youth; 
But  where  is  the  vision  prophetic 
To  forecast  his  future  with  truth? 

No  more  a  child  to  be  petted 
And  sheltered  away  from  the  strife? 
Henceforth  a  man  to  be  fretted 
And  worn  with  the  worries  of  life. 

Henceforth  a  man,  with  others 
To  scramble  and  push  in  the  race, 
To  jostle  and  crowd  with  others, 
To  struggle  for  gain  and  place. 

Now,  though  his  heart  is  breaking, 
Henceforth  his  lids  must  be  dry. 
N*w,  though  his  soul  is  aching, 
He  must  not  utter  a  cry. 

Now,  if  his  brain  is  troubled, 
Now,  if  his  courage  is  gone, 
Still  must  his  strength  be  doubled, 
Still  must  the  battle  go  on. 

Now,  if  success  shall  crown  him, 
Oh,  how  the  world  will  cheer; 
Now,  if  misfortune  shall  down  him, 
Oh,  how  the  scoffer  will  jeer! 

Virtue  and  truth  attend  him 
Into  the  vortex  whirled; 
God  and  his  angels  defend  him, 
A  boy  has  gone  into  the  world. 


The  Rail  Splitter 

Edited  and  published  by  Wm.  Lloyd  Clark.  One  year  50  cents. 
In  clubs  of  four  or  more,  40  cents.  Bundle  rates  to  those  who 
will  help  spread  the  truth,  one  cent  each,  in  any  quantity,  or  ten 
dollars  per  thousand,  if  ordered  at  one  time.  This  is  the  cheap- 
est and  most  effective  literature  you  can  scatter  among  the  peo- 
ple as  an  antidote  to  papal  poison.  Platform:  Free  speech.  Free 
press.  Free  schools.  Free  text  books.  Convent  inspection.  Separa- 
tion of  church  and  state.  Taxation  of  church  property.  No  public 
funds  for  sectarian  purposes.  Equality  of  all  before  the  law.  As 
an  interpreter  of  events  and  a  stimulant  to  brain  action  The  Rail 
Splitter  is  indispensible  to  every  loyal,  red-blooded  American. 
We  need  your  help.  We  are  fighting  an  enemy  as  deadly  to  our' 
liberties  as  the  Cobra  of  India  is  deadly  to  human  life.  The 
enemy  is  thoroughly  organized,  led  by  shrewd  and  resourceful 
schemers  and  is  backed  by  untold  wealth.  Romanism  and  civil 
liberty  will  not  mix  any  more  than  oil  and  water-  This  nation 
cannot  endure  half  Papal  and  half  Protestant.  The  Rail  Split- 
ter is  working  to  the  limit  of  its  ability  to  save  and  preserve  our 
free  institutions.  To  win  it  must  have  the  loyal  and  active  sup- 
port of  every  patriot  on  the  firing  line.  We  are  appealing  to  you 
to  help  us  build  up  The  Rail  Splitter  that  it  may  become  a  wall 
so  strongly  surrounding  our  liberties  that  the  enemy  can  never 
scale  it  or  break  through  it.  Every  paper  you  hand  to  a  friend 
and  club  of  subscribers  you  send  in  helps  to  that  end.  Give  this 
paper  the  best  co-operation  within  your  power  that  we  may  work 
together  for  the  salvation  and  preservation  of  our  free  institu- 
tions. If  we  give  our  children  a  free  nation  in  which  to  live 
there  is  no  time  to  lose.  The  enemy,  the  Roman  Hierarchy,  is 
busy.  Order  a  bundle  of  papers  and  get  on  the  firing  line  today. 
Head  the  list  with  your  name  and  round  up  every  loyal  Ameri- 
can in  your  community.  This  paper  has  in  its  service  the  great- 
est anti-Papal  cartoonist  in  America.  Its  illustrations  and  its 
powerful  articles  will  overthrow  the  minions  of  the  Man-God  if 
you  do  your  duty  and  put  it  into  the  homes  of  the  people.  Its 
publisher  has  given  the  cause  years  of  hard  and  faithful  service 
without  reward  or  compensation.  Its  office  is  equipped  with  the 
best  anti-Papal  library  in  America.  It  carries  no  questionable 
or  filthy  ads  in  its  columns.  It  is  brave  and  fearless  and  clean 
and  should  have  the  loyal  and  unselfish  support  of  every  liberty 
loving  American.    All  together  for  a  mighty  forward  movement. 

Catalogues  free. 

ADDRESS 

THE  RAIL  SPUTTER,  Milan,  Illinois 


